Netflix’s official Atlas trailer puts Jennifer Lopez in another generic Terminator clone, but with Titanfall-like mechs

Imagine Gigli… IN SPACE! Thankfully this isn’t that movie

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Whenwe watched the teaser trailerfor Jennifer Lopez’s new sci-fi movieAtlas, we said that it looked like a cross betweenTerminatorandThe CreatorwithNeon Genesis Evangelion-like mechs thrown in for good measure. And now that a longer trailer has dropped, we’re thinking much the same.

Thenew Netflix movielooks very entertaining, with lots of big robot suits (similar to the powered exoskeletons you see in films likeEdge of Tomorrow)and explosions – always a good thing unless you’re watching a period drama. It also has a “can we trust AI?” plot, which is very timely.

InAtlas,Lopez is Atlas Shepherd, a genius data analyst who’s trying to save the human race from a rogue AI – but when she crash lands on a hostile alien planet, she finds herself having to team up with a renegade robot that she doesn’t trust in the slightest. You can watch the official trailer below.

What to expect from Atlas

It’s hard not to notice the sci-fi tropes in this new trailer, from what are (deliberate?) echoes of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley inAlienandAliensto some distinctlyTerminator 2scenes of AI-powered destruction. And that means our very own Tom Power’s worries appear to be valid: “I pray it isn’t another generic Netflix film offering,” he wrote, adding: “I live in hope it’ll be better than I expect.”

It certainly looks like it’ll deliver some impressive spectacle, and with director Brad Peyton (Rampage,San Andreasand of course,Cats & Dogs The Revenge) on board there’s likely to be plenty of eye candy on-screen. And there’s some impressive talent over the typewriters too, with the writing courtesy of Leo Sadarian (StartUp) and Aron Eli Coleite (Star Trek: Discovery).

I’m hoping this is going to be more than just some CGI mechs walloping each other. AsThe Creatoron Disney Plus and Hulu recently demonstrated, you can have thrilling action, amazing FX and still tell a compellingly human story even in the most sci-fi settings; that too wore some of its influences (notablyDistrict 9andAvatar) on its sleeve but was very much its own movie. And let’s face it, in thecanonof Jennifer Lopez movies it’s unlikely that Atlas is going to be ranked alongsideGigli. So it’s got that going for it at least.

Atlaswill be streaming onNetflixfrom May 24.

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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.

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