Between this being her now, and sharing her greatest love story never told, this has certainly been ‘a year’ for Jennifer Lopez. I have no idea what is happening with her personal life, but I do actually hope she and Ben can figure this out.At bare minimum, they are actors, and you can’t drop a whole movie about your loe and then just split. But, what you can do is save the world from Shang Chi destroying human life as we know it. You can be a strong female lead who can never seem to find a good cup of coffee, whose skill set is incredibly vague, and yet the entire plot seems to hinge on your ability to be the very best of the best. This is Atlas.

Atlas is actually her name. If you think this film wasn’t originally conceived for a male lead,ask yourself if you feel like if you had no idea who was in the cast, would you imagine atlas as a male or female character? It’s such an odd flex to keep that name, and I know that while it has implications of earth, or carrying everything on your back, it has very little to do with a cop who has to profile an advanced AI that now lives on another planet, where the middle section of the film is space travel, and the final part is really dramatic space action. Atlas truly says nothing about a film that has nothing to say.

This is a star vehicle, written for someone with oodles of charisma to come in, and you know what? Jenny From The Block has that charisma. she always has, which is why there is something innately watchable about most of her films. Even when the plot is derivative, the quality of the production lacks, or her co-stars fail to deliver, she always shows up. In my opinion, qualities like that are why she really did deserve that Supporting Actress Oscar nod for hustlers. She’s so undervalued for what she does.

But Atlas as a film is a random Netflix film made from an algorithm, with no soul, that is loud, and instantly forgettable. It is fine for one watch, but you won’t remember it a year from now. There wasn’t really anything special, and at times the film is rather silly. She has a deeply talented supporting cast, including Oscar nominee Sterling K Brown, Simu Liu, and Mark Strong. All three of them are very one note characters that have nominal screentime. This film is all on her shoulders, you know, like Atlas.

It feels like a 2024 film in the ways that it is centered around the worst case scenario potential of AI. Like, could OpenAI move to another planet and destroy earth? Maybe. But, J.Lo will stop it. Netflix went for a director that I didn’t recognize at first, with Brad Peyton, but he’s actually been given the reigns of several of Dwayne Johnson’s action films like San Andreas and Rampage. So, he is a competent director. I just think that at some point, Netflix doesn’t worry about test screenings, or giving a film or director feedback, and with no desire to earn box office, mediocrity is consistently released. Every once in a while, someone accidentally bucks that trend, but Peyton needed the typical studio system, because even though San Andreas and Rampage aren’t classics, they are better, more entertaining, and more memorable. Still, those films relied on a charismatic lead.

The audio description here I initially thought was pretty solid. There is a large amount of science fiction here that has no basis in reality, and writer Dakota green did mostly nice work (as she always does). The problem is, I’m blind as hell, so when I hear a sighted person say something, I do question. I’ve always been someone who talks about size relativity, and the vibe I got from the track was that the AI Mech that Atlas is forced to work with in the middle part of the film was like a mech suit. Definitely no larger than how Ripley appears in that epic scene in Aliens. Twice, I’ve heard TitanFall. Now, if that is the size, they needed a much bigger boat (spaceship, but i can’t resist the Jaws reference), and I have some questions. But, I just get the vibe that he’s smaller than that. So I think Dakota is right, I just didn’t feel supported enough to be firm in that, which is the only thing that could possibly rub me the wrong way. Frankie Corso does a delightful job narrating, a perfect choice. A nice strong female sounding voice for a film with a female lead who needs to save all of mankind. And, International Digital Center’s remaining team mixed a nice track, which I’ve stopped taking for granted, and really does need to be mentioned a lot more.

If you are a fan of the artist formerly known as Karen Sisco, Atlas is absolutely something you’ll like. She showed up. She’s great. But, the lack of feedback Netflix really gives to make sure their originals they spend 100 million on are actually good films just isn’t there. Brad Peyton needed more feedback, and Atlas suffered as a result. The villain is weak, her supporting cast is non-existent, and you wonder where all that money went, when Everything Everywhere All At Once cost a fraction of this.

Final Grade: C+