Atlas is the name of the latest blockbuster starring Jennifer Lopez, which she shot for Netflix after The Mother. After its launch on May 24, the sci-fi blockbuster quickly shot to number 1 in the German charts. Bad reviews and audience ratings did not help to dissuade people from watching. Because the Premise sounds pretty cool at first and Tom Hanks can sing a song about it.
Number 1 on Netflix: Atlas is ridiculed despite its cool premise
First of all, the premise of Atlas sounds pretty cool: Jennifer Lopez plays Atlas, a hater of artificial intelligence. But when she crashes on an alien planet while chasing an AI terrorist, she must team up with the AI of a large mecha to survive.
Many topics from tolerance to AI progress could have been combined with cool survival action. Unfortunately, this turned out completely uninspired CGI uniformityOn Moviepilot, Altas only received a 5.1 out of 10 in the first few days, on the review aggregator Metacritic it received a miserable 38 out of 100 points and on Rotten Tomatoes it received a subterranean 17 percent.
Paste Magazine sums up the ridicule Atlas receives well:
AI is not advanced enough to make a movie as bad as Atlasbut until then we can rely on autocomplete.
Atlas leaves a lot of potential untapped and especially wastes the talent of Jennifer Lopez, who plays a pretty cool action heroine in her stronger scenes. Atlas cannot keep up with the original film in any respect.
Also on Netflix: Atlas director was inspired by adventure masterpiece Cast Away
Speaking to GamesRadar, Atlas director Brad Peyton (San Andreas) revealed his role model for the sci-fi blockbuster: the adventure masterpiece Cast Away. Cast Away by Robert Zemeckis is a grueling and touching survival story brilliantly played by Tom Hanks. It is a modern Robinson Crusoe.
DreamWorks / Universal
Tom Hanks and his friend Wilson, the volleyball, in Cast Away
In Cast Away, Tom Hanks crashes a plane on a deserted island and has to survive there (almost) alone. Brad Peyton called Atlas a kind of “Cast Away in Space”. In Cast Away, however, it is not an AI but a volleyball that the survivor talks to.
In fact, the Friendship between Jennifer Lopez’ character Atlas and the mecha AI Smith the emotional core of the film. Unfortunately, he is overwhelmed by irrelevant action and is unable to develop sufficiently – in contrast to Tom Hanks and his volleyball partner Wilson.
You can stream both Atlas and Cast Away on Netflix – we strongly recommend the latter.