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Artificial Intelligence is out to nuke the world, but not if a (checks notes) data analyst has anything to say about it in Atlas, now streaming on Netflix worldwide. This should be both topical and fun, and star Jennifer Lopez and director Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Rampage) initially seem up to the task. But they fail to shoulder the burden of a incredibly dull and shockingly unimaginative script.

Atlas opens in an unspecified future where interstellar travel is now possible, and the Los Angeles skyline has a few new skyscrapers, including Prague’s TV Tower. Three decades back, an artificial being named Harlan (a robotically over-the-top Simu Liu) became sentient and attempted to wipe out humanity, killing three million people before taking it on the lam across the galaxy, Roy Batty-style.

Lopez is the titular Atlas Shepherd, who has a special connection to Harlan: she’s his sister! Yes, mom (Lana Parrilla) “invented” Harlan before he went genocidal, and so Atlas now bears her burden, hunting the robot across the universe. In an early scene, she finally locates him after tricking AI associate Casca Decius (Abraham Popoola) into giving up the intel using this one simple trick all robots and 9-year-old children hate.

Harlan’s hiding out in the Andromeda Galaxy, just a short 2.5 million light year ride from Earth. So here’s the plan, formulated by stodgy General Jake Boothe (Mark Strong) and gung-ho Colonel Elias Banks (Sterling K. Brown): fly a planet-destroying nuclear payload to Harlan’s hideout… but only as Plan B. Instead, capture Harlan alive for, uh, reasons. Nevermind that by the time you need to employ Plan B, Harlan will have his hands on a nuclear payload capable of destroying Earth.

We have questions. It’s established in the early scenes with Casca that you cannot “kill” AI. You can kill their physical form, but not the intelligence that forever lives on a cloud. And even the physical form can be easily replicated. So what’s the point of the mission? Isn’t the threat AI sentience itself, and not the physical Simu Liu robot?

Anyway, Atlas herself, the Jack Ryan in this sci-fi Clancyverse, joins the mission as the world’s foremost Harlan expert. Despite a deep mistrust of AI, she soon discovers that her only chance of survival will be to bond with an AI operating system named Smith (voiced by Gregory James Cohan) that operates her giant mech suit.

Helpfully, this AI bond between Atlas and Smith is displayed for the audience in a LED bar that slowly rises during the course of the movie, reaching the crucial 100 percent when Atlas opens up via climactic expository dialogue. Even though, we assume, the AI can read her mind at all times. What’s the point of the neural link if she needs to tell Smith everything verbally?

Atlas is at its modest best during scenes with Lopez alone in the mech, slowly forming a bond with the artificial intelligence. Smith asks her whether she likes pie or cake, and harvests an alien flower for her. Awww. Nevermind that the last AI system she bonded with ended up killing millions of people. They must have patched the genocide bug with this newest update.

There is some fun to be had in a big, schlocky would-be sci-fi epic like this, but Atlas takes itself way too seriously with big teary-eyed speeches and emotional swells on the soundtrack. Lopez is more than capable of carrying something like this, but she doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie she’s in; one could imagine frequent Peyton collaborator Dwayne Johnson bringing the right kind of self-awareness to the role.

Atlas looks mostly great, with a certain car commercial slickness, though even the high production values seem to abandon the film as it climaxes in a hopelessly pedestrian nondescript warehouse on this strange new alien world. Netflix spent an alleged $100 million on this movie, but by the finale, it might as well be Cosmic Sin.

Worst of all, Atlas fails to capitalize on the topical subject that supposedly drives its narrative. AI can be both bad and good, it seems to be saying, as it argues for acceptance of the technology. Of course, when the bad is the deaths of millions and the good is the preservation of a flower and a friendly how-do-you-do, we wonder if JLo isn’t too hasty in learning stop worrying and love the algorithm.

You’re almost certainly not prepared for Robot Dreams. Even after it getting the Best Animated Feature nomination at the Academy Awards, most of you who see the film are going to be walking in cold. That’s good, too, as it will be similar to how I approached the movie. Do it that we and this beautiful bit of emotional animation will wash over you in a very special way. Robot Dreams is one of my favorite works of late, easily representing some of 2024’s best cinematic bits (yes, I’m mostly counting it for this year).

Robot Dreams takes a very simple premise and executes it magnificently. Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, it’s a tribute to the power of emotions, the need to be close to others, and how a true connection is not impacted by time. The movie is timeless and universal in its themes, while also being hyper specific in its style, as well as choice of characters. For me, it basically all worked.

Set in a version of 1980s New York City with anthropomorphized animals, we’re introduced to Dog, who lives alone in Manhattan. He’s clearly lonely and one day, while watching television, sees an ad for a robot friend. Ordering it and building it, he suddenly has a companion in Robot. An inseparable friendship blossoms, as they galavant all around the city. Towards the end of the summer, they go to the beach in Coney Island. There, a moment in the water, followed by sleeping in the sand, will change them both forever.

When Dog discovers that Robot has rusted and is unable to move it, he has to head home that night, planning to return in the morning with tools. Unfortunately, that plan does not work, so Robot has more or less been abandoned. Without hope, at least until the beach reopens next season, Dog goes about his life, trying to fill the void. While he’s attempting to make new connections, Robot dreams about being reunited, as well as what could be happening in those scenarios. Will they ever meet again? Plus, if they even can, will they still have what was so special to them once before?

While this film has no dialogue, the emotions speak volumes. Whether it’s the joy of the opening section, the sadness of the middle, or the mix of hope and melancholy that dominates the back end, we don’t need to hear Dog or Robot to completely understand them. That’s incredibly rare and one of the big triumphs of Robot Dreams.

Filmmaker Pablo Berger executes his vision with aplomb. The beginning is about as adorable and fun as anything you’ll see this year, while his ending ranks up there with La La Land (in more ways than one). Berger knows exactly how to make Robot Dreams never boring, always beautiful, and constantly compelling. It’s a home run.

Robot Dreams is worth the wait. Whether you heard about it before its Oscar run, during the awards season, or just here in 2024, you’re in for a treat. It’s one of the best films of the year so far, animated or otherwise, and demands your attention!

SCORE: ★★★1/2

Related

Robot Dreams, 2023.

Directed by Pablo Berger.
Featuring the voice talents of Ivan Labanda, Graciela Molina, José Mediavilla, José García Tos, Esther Solans, Tito Trifol, and Rafa Calvo.

SYNOPSIS:

Adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel, Robot Dreams tells the story of Dog, a lonely soul who decides to buy himself a new companion in the shape of Robot, delivered in parts for home assembly but soon lovingly transformed into a fully functioning friend. 

Set in an alt-world ’70s New York where humans have been replaced by anthropomorphised-animals, yet birds are still birds, it’s little wonder that Dog is having a loneliness enforced existential crisis. Whether he catches a glimpse of the loving cross-breed couple across from him watching a movie in each others arms, or his own sad reflection as he turns off a television dominated by representations of companionship and love, nothing is making this puppy’s tail wag.

That is until he orders a mail-order robot, who looks a little like Futurama‘s Bender, but comes without the attitude. In fact, his presets are perfect for Dog, as the two form a montage-heavy friendship of hand-holding and happiness.

As with all great stories of love, for that’s what this is, their Earth, Wind & Fire accompanied friendship rusts to a standstill when a trip to the beach triggers a forced separation that brings a level of anxiety and longing usually reserved for Oscar nominated dramas.

As you can probably tell, Robot Dreams isn’t your run-of-the-mill animated buddy-movie for the sprogs. Largely dialogue-free, littered with deadpan comedy, and with a funk soundtrack that’ll have you humming ‘September’ as you bask in the same kind of melancholy glow brought on by Celine Song’s similarly themed Past Lives, Pablo Berger’s friendship-fable doesn’t shy away from the hard truths of loneliness, and being a grown up navigating the trials of life.

That’s not to say that this is a depressing tale, it’s quite the opposite. Robot Dreams offers up a message of hope. Sadness acts as a comma to a lot of what befalls Robot and Dog, but the full stop is a note of optimism. Robot’s locked-in months spent trapped on a beach in isolation are bleak, but his relationship with a family of nesting birds is joyous, if fleeting.

And therein lies the film’s overriding message about on the brevity of life and living for the now, which Pablo Berger wraps in a beautifully realised world of animation that feels creatively fresh in a saturated genre.

Never showy, it’s the small touches that charm; Robot’s pencil line mouth, Dog’s wagging tail, or the moment he uses a towel on the beach to remove his swim shorts. As well as addressing the grander themes, it also perfectly captures the minutiae of life.

At 104 mins it is slightly too long, especially considering the vignette-style structure, which can’t help but make things feel repetitive by about the half way mark, but it ends in a way that’ll double the size of your heart and make you feel great about life….for a short while at least.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist