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Atlas embodies a love story between human and AI as close as it gets and who better to play the heroine than Jennifer Lopez, a real-life depiction of the very notion. Divorced thrice, the actress is reportedly on the verge of her fourth divorce, with things between her and Ben Affleck taking a downward plunge. But that’s a love story for another day. Despite Jennifer Lopez’s impending divorce situation, movie lovers haven’t been kind with words or stars when dishing out reviews of her latest Netflix drop Atlas.
Jennifer Lopez’s Atlas Reviews Are Gut-Wrenching
Since it began streaming on Netflix on May 24, the sci-fi thriller has been met with less-than-impressive ratings, scoring a mere 15% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews. That’s a poor start for a movie that came with so much hype. The film follows Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez), a super smart data analyst with a deep distrust for AI. When faced with a mission to capture a renegade robot, her only hope of saving humanity is to trust the AI and avail it access to their “neural link.”
Rampage and San Andreas filmmaker Brad Peyton directed the movie, while Simu Liu starred alongside Jennifer Lopez as her Atlas character’s perpetual nemesis Harlan. Critics have roasted the movie itself, and the heroine alike, mostly targeting the “recycled story elements.” Irish film critic Helen O’Hara noted,
“Lopez throws everything at this. But even major movie-star charisma can’t make up for the recycled story elements, tired exposition and endless psycho-babble.”
Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han reechoed these sentiments in her review, describing Atlas as a romance that “feels awfully tiny” and “treads no new emotional terrain.” Todd Gilchrist criticized the film for lacking original ideas, which undercuts its overall appeal. Sunshine State Cineplex cofounder Alan French also shredded Jennifer Lopez’s onscreen journey to space, saying,
“Atlas may become the center of movie culture this weekend. Sadly, it’s a slog, painstakingly generic, and looks terrible.”
A Movie Flop Is the Last Thing Jennifer Needs Amid Divorce Rumors
More viewers have also taken a jab at the film’s overall appearance, with one pointing out that JLo did not look to have left the studio throughout the production, judging by the painfully poor visuals. Meanwhile, many came clean in their reviews, bluntly stating their only aversion to Atlas was having Jennifer Lopez play the female lead.
Jennifer Lopez’s latest movie backlash comes as the actress struggles to hold her head up amid the dwindling flames of her real-life love story. While neither Jennifer nor Ben Affleck has directly addressed the divorce rumors, her recent solo appearances at the premieres of Atlas without her husband in tow said a lot about the state of their marriage.
