Jennifer Lopez’s latest film, Atlas, premiered on Netflix on Friday, but arrived on the service amid a wave of withering negative reviews from film critics.
The sci-fi thriller earned a disappointing 14 percent terrible rating from top critics surveyed by rotten tomatoesindicating a solid wave.
metacriticwhich accounts for the strength of criticism and praise, gave the film a score of 38 out of 100, indicating “generally unfavorable” reviews.
Lopez, who has been inundated by rumors of a breakup with husband Ben Affleck in recent weeks, stars in Atlas Shepherd as a data analyst involved in tracking down a computer-based artificial intelligence that turned homicidal nearly 30 years earlier, leading a rebellion against humans that left three million dead.
Atlas has a vested interest in the efforts to find and destroy the AI, who is named Harlan (and played by Simu Liu), as his mother was responsible for creating her decades earlier, before she murdered her along with millions of others.
Jennifer Lopez’s latest film, Atlas, premiered on Netflix on Friday, but arrived on the service amid a wave of withering negative reviews from film critics; atlas frame
The sci-fi thriller earned a disappointing rotten rating from 14 percent of top critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes, indicating a solid wave; photographed on Tuesday in Mexico
Lopez, 54, joins a group of soldiers in mechanized suits trying to locate Harlan, including Sterling K. Brown as Colonel Elias Banks and Mark Strong as General Jake Boothe.
But several critics criticized Atlas’ “formulaic” story and lack of original elements, raising the question of whether an AI-written script could have been an improvement.
New York Times Film critic Alissa Wilkinson wrote that Atlas seems “cheap” and “tacky” and at times “feels like pure pastiche.”
“Science fiction often earns its place in memory by imagining something new and surprising, but with Atlas we’ve seen it all before,” he wrote.
Benjamin Lee gave Atlas two out of five stars for The Guardian and compared the film to the kind of ‘silly, irony-free’ blockbusters that used to be a fixture of Memorial Day weekend two decades ago.
However, he thought the Netflix film suffered from the flaws of many previous films released by the streaming service that attempted to imitate those past big-budget hits.
“As with many of the streamer’s other sims (his more naked attempts to compete with the bigger boys), he’s too synthetic and self-serious to possess anything resembling self-awareness,” he wrote.
VarietyTodd Gilchrist called Atlas “disappointing” and compared it to the mostly mediocre films Lopez has made over the past two decades, rather than the initial success that made her a star, including Selena (1997) and Out Of Sight (1998). ). ).
He lamented that Lopez turned to a “generic sci-fi adventure” like Atlas after his Oscar-snubbed role in Hustlers, and placed much of the blame on the film’s script by Leo Sardarian and Aron Eli Coleite.
New York Times film critic Alissa Wilkinson wrote that Atlas seems “cheap” and “tacky” and at times “feels like pure pastiche”; atlas frame
Several critics noted that Atlas suffers from a formulaic script. William Bibbiani complained in The Wrap that he fails to develop anything new despite allusions to classic science fiction and action films; atlas frame
Among the few positive reviews, Angie Han gave mild praise in The Hollywood Reporter, writing that “Lopez’s chemistry elevates otherwise bland dialogue into passably funny and occasionally touching jokes”; seen in Los Angeles in March 2023
In The envelopeWilliam Bibbiani called the dialogue “generic” and accused Atlas of suffering from an “embarrassing plot” with “mediocre action.”
The film was mocked for its seemingly cheap atmosphere, including an alien planet that looks “suspiciously… (like) Northern California” and the AI villain’s lair, which “appears to have been modeled after a abandoned warehouse.”
Among the few positive reviews, Angie Han slightly praised The Hollywood Reporterwriting that “Lopez’s chemistry elevates an otherwise bland dialogue to a passably funny and occasionally touching joke.”
Brian Lowry modestly praised the film cnnwriting that Peyton “keeps the story moving with a check-your-brain-at-the-door level of efficiency, relying on the shorthand of how familiar almost every beat feels.”