Netflix’s official Atlas trailer puts Jennifer Lopez in another generic Terminator clone, but with Titanfall-style mechs
When we watched the teaser trailer for Jennifer Lopez’s new sci-fi film Atlaswe said it looked like a cross between Terminator And The creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque mechs thrown in for good measure. And now that a longer trailer has dropped, we think much the same way.
The new Netflix movie looks very entertaining, with lots of big robot suits (similar to the powered exoskeletons you see in movies like Edge of Tomorrow) and explosions β always good, unless you’re watching a period drama. It also has a βcan we trust AI?β plot, which is very topical.
In Atlas, Lopez is Atlas Shepherd, a genius data analyst who tries to save humanity from a rogue AI β but when she crash-lands on a hostile alien planet, she must team up with a renegade robot she doesn’t trust. the slightest. You can watch the official trailer below.
What can you expect from Atlas?
It’s hard not to notice the sci-fi tropes in this new trailer, with what are (intentional?) echoes of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Alien And Aliens clear to some Terminator 2 scenes of AI-powered destruction. And that means our own Tom Power’s concerns appear to be justified: “I pray it’s not another generic Netflix movie offering,” he wrote, adding, “I live in hope it will be better than I expected.”
It certainly looks like it will provide an impressive spectacle, and with director Brad Peyton (Disaster, San Andreas and of course, Cats and dogs the revenge) on board there’s probably a lot of eye candy on the screen. And there’s also some impressive talent in the field of typewriters, courtesy of Leo Sadarian (To start) and Aron Eli Coleite (Star Trek: Discovery).
I’m hoping this will be more than just a few CGI mechs kicking the crap out of each other. If The creator on Disney Plus and Hulu recently demonstrated, you can experience exciting action and great effects while still telling a compelling human story, even in the most sci-fi environments; that too bore some of his influences (notably District 9 And Avatar) on the cover, but was very much its own film. And let’s be honest: in the canon of Jennifer Lopez films, Atlas is unlikely to be next Gigli. So at least that took care of it.
Atlas will be available on Netflix from May 24.