After 28 years of peering nervously at the skies, the I.C.N. captures an A.I. bot known to be associated with Harlan. Something is afoot. A scientist named Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez) is called in as the world’s leading expert on Harlan — in part because her mother, Val Shepherd, the founder of Shepherd Robotics, created Harlan and raised him alongside Atlas. At the request of Gen. Jake Boothe (Mark Strong), Atlas boards a spacecraft commanded by Col. Elias Banks (Sterling K. Brown), headed for the planet where they’ve discovered Harlan has been hiding out.
You can tell from these names that “Atlas,” which Peyton directed from a script by Leo Sardarian and Aron Eli Coleite, is highly referential. (Or, perhaps, derivative.) Harlan shares a name with Harlan Ellison, the eminent speculative fiction author. Atlas is bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders; Lopez, who was also a producer on the movie, flings herself into the role with abandon, the kind of performance that’s especially impressive given that she’s largely by herself throughout. Her character’s last name, Shepherd, seems both metaphorical and maybe a link to a beloved character from the sci-fi show “Firefly.” I could keep digging, but you get the idea. At times “Atlas” feels like pure pastiche, and it looks, in a fashion we’re getting used to seeing on the streamers, kind of cheap, dark, plasticky and fake, particularly in the big action sequences. Science fiction often earns its place in memory by envisioning something new and startling — but with “Atlas,” we’ve seen it all before.
It does, however, try to pose some potent questions. For some reason, the extermination of millions of humans by A.I. has not halted the use of artificial intelligence in this world as it did in, say, the universe of “Dune.” (Actually, that kind of checks out.) Instead, they’re ubiquitous, companions that play chess and adjust your home heating system but also talk to you and keep an eye on you. Despite having an A.I. in her home, Atlas is extremely suspicious of the technology. So most of the movie’s tension comes from her relationship to an A.I. named Smith (perhaps another reference, this time to “The Matrix”), with which she’ll have to sync her own mind to survive.
It’s an intriguing concept, since an open question both onscreen and in real life is whether A.I. is inherently good, or bad, or neutral, or some other fourth thing we haven’t quite put words to yet. Sometimes, the movies — like Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” — have suggested that these creatures we may build are capable of loyalty and love, and that humanity’s proclivity for the opposite is the real problem. Sometimes (as in, say, Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina”), we end up on their side.
“Atlas” is also primarily concerned with the morality of artificial intelligence, and who’s at fault if it all goes wrong. This is where things get a little weird. After all, it’s hard to forget that A.I. itself was a sticking point in last year’s Hollywood strikes, in which Netflix, which is distributing “Atlas,” was very much a player. Is A.I. going to destroy the industry — maybe a lot of industries? Or will it save the world? Is Atlas right to be skeptical?