Because the movie industry tends to be cyclical more often than not, it would appear the age of Jennifer Lopez: Action Hero is upon us once again, with Netflix leading the charge by following up the actor and singer’s recent outing in The Mother with upcoming sci-fi blockbuster Atlas.
There’s plenty of experience on board to suggest the film will be capable of living up to the promise of a bombastic far-flung epic showcased in the trailer, with Brad Peyton having displayed his talents for crafting wanton destruction in mindless escapism through the likes of Dwayne Johnson vehicles San Andreas and Rampage.
There’s a decent supporting cast in place alongside Lopez, too, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings breakout and Barbie star Simu Liu on board alongside recent Academy Award nominee Sterling K. Brown, the ever-reliable Mark Strong, and Lana Parrilla.
There’s even a semi-relevant cultural concern thrown into the mix, with Lopez leading the line as Atlas Shepherd, a data analyst who holds a deep-seated and unwavering distrust of artificial intelligence. However, when her mission to track down and apprehend an android with whom she has a shared history doesn’t go according to plan, she’s forced to put her prejudices to one side in order to trust the AI-driven robot for the sake of her own safety.
As tends to be the case with many of Netflix’s more expensive in-house originals, though, at first glance Atlas doesn’t appear to be leaning particularly heavily into originality, with the trailer – intentionally or otherwise – evoking a number of other sci-fi films as opposed to standing on its own two feet.
There are inevitable echoes of The Terminator in the ‘shady robot’ setup, the visuals are similar to those found in Gareth Edward’s recent AI-conscious adventure The Creator, the mechanised suits possess shades of Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt’s Edge of Tomorrow, while a dirt and sweat-caked female protagonist in a sleeveless t-shirt is Ellen Ripley all over.
That being said, there looks to be plenty of eye-popping spectacle and accomplished visual effects in play, and the names attached on either side of the camera should guarantee competency at the very least. The downside is that not many of Netflix’s star-powered and CGI-laden genre flicks tend to linger long in the memory once the credits come up, but there’s always a chance Atlas could change that when it premieres on May 24th.
