'Atlas' review: In Netflix's overwrought sci-fi thriller, Jennifer Lopez takes on the evil AI bots

At the outset of the derivative and overwrought artificial intelligence thriller “Atlas,” we hear snippets of desperate 911 calls and see newscast-style footage of mass destruction, as exposition-spouting anchors explain the premise of the movie: “For years, we have been assured that they would never harm us, but tonight all of that has changed, as across the globe, artificial intelligence bots ... have all bypassed their security protocols,” and, “Authorities have estimated that over 500,000 have died from AI-controlled drone strikes in Bangalore.”

So what you’re telling us is that humans created AI bots and installed security protocols to ensure the bots would always remain peaceful and subservient — and yet those same machines that somehow became self-aware and independent, to the point where they rebelled against the humans and are hell-bent on taking over the world? Why, that’s almost unheard of, and yet why do I keep hearing the theme from “The Terminator” playing in my head?

With Jennifer Lopez doing underwhelming work in a role that requires emotional heavy lifting, a fine supporting cast lost in the weeds of too much techno-talk, and a warmed-over plot with echoes of far better movies, including the “Terminator” franchise, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Ex Machina,” “I, Robot,” “Blade Runner,” “Real Steel,” “A.I.” and “Interstellar,” this is a murky-looking, CGI-heavy dud. Nearly everything is heavy-handed, including the name of Lopez’ title character: She’s Atlas Shepherd, and she feels the weight of the world on her shoulders as she acts as the guide for a flock of soldiers on a mission to save humanity. At least they didn’t call her Savior McDanger!

As we also learned in that very helpful opening sequence, all the lands in the world united to form the International Coalition of Nations (ICN) and were able to turn the tide in the war against the bots, with Simu Liu’s Harlan, “the first AI terrorist” and the humanoid leader of the rebellion, eventually fleeing our world for a distant planet, but only after vowing, “I’m coming back to finish what I started. This is the only way.” Big talk, bot man!

Cue the title card reading “28 YEARS LATER,” and we’re in a futuristic Los Angeles (dig that giant neon “Hollywood” sign) that is rocked by an assault led by Casca (Abraham Popoola), an AI henchman who is part of a terrorist cell that apparently stayed behind when Harlan fled. When Casca is captured, — his AI head trapped in a cool briefcase-type device, and maybe that’s what was in the “Pulp Fiction” briefcase — the ICN calls on Lopez’ Atlas, the coalition's top counter-terrorism analyst, to interrogate. The brilliant Atlas (you should see how good she is at chess) eventually tricks Casca into revealing Harlan’s whereabouts: he’s been hiding out on a distant planet known as GR39, no doubt plotting and scheming his return to Earth.

The ICN, led by Mark Strong’s Gen. Boothe, decides to launch a mission to GR39 to capture Harlan and bring him back for study or some such thing. (As Boothe puts it, “SAPTECH wants Harlan’s CPU. They want to back trace his code.” Ah, OK, got it.) Atlas argues this is a really bad idea, even after Col. Banks (Sterling K. Brown), the commanding officer of the mission to GR39, shows Atlas the ICN’s latest technology, which enables neural links between humans and mech suits resembling giant Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.

Atlas argues that they should kill Harlan and be done with him, because he's the WORST. She's not wrong, plus she has extra skin in the game because her genius scientist mother (Lana Parrilla) is the creator of Harlan, who became a kind of creepy robot big brother to Atlas, and that let's say we hope Atlas has a good therapist on speed dial.

Though Atlas refuses to sync up with the AI creation called Smith (Gregory James Cohan) who “lives” in her mech suit, she does join the mission, and let’s just say things don't go as planned, and unless Atlas learns to trust Smith and fully bond with him, everyone is doomed. Ah, but even as Smith becomes ever more human-like, displaying a sense of humor and mimicking Atlas’ rough language and saying he cares about her, how can Atlas trust a bot when she’s ... that’s right ... never learned to fully trust any HUMAN?

Nothing about “Atlas” feels like an authentic representation, whether it’s the CGI version of future L.A. or the scenes on GR39, which has a very soundstage-y, green screen-y feel to it. Superb actors such as Sterling K. Brown and Mark Strong do what they can with their underwritten characters, while Lopez comes across as trying too hard and Acting with a capital “A” in the numerous scenes that require Atlas to experience heavy emotions. This film isn’t so terrible as to merit camp value, nor is it close to being strong enough to merit two hours of your viewing time. Atlas? Shrug.