Netflix's upcoming sci-fi movie has an A-list cast and is all about AI ending the world

Netflix has a sci-fi epic on the way, and it concerns everyone’s favourite tech topic of the moment: AI.

Atlas is the story of Atlas Shepard, an anti-terrorism “data analyst” on a mission to help humanity’s fight against artificial intelligence, which has become a fight for survival.

Jennifer Lopez stars as Shepard, and Netflix has posted a trailer for the movie, which contains at least mild spoilers for what the film is about.

Watched it? Yep, in order to defeat the AI, Jennifer Lopez has to trust… a different AI.

From what we gather, it’s an AI inside a robot Shepard gets into, mech suit style.

Some of the dialogue creaks louder than a rusty robot in need of some WD40. But that does not mean Atlas won’t be a bunch of fun.

Being a critical hit has also never stopped Netflix movies’ success. The Mother starring Lopez is the 8th most popular movie on Netflix to date, and has a 43% Rotten Tomatoes score. It was released in 2023, and racked-up 136.4 million hours viewed in its first 91 days on steam.

Could the J-Lo effect strike again with Atlas? We’ll find out when it arrives on May 24.

It’s already stirring up a bit of controversy with the YouTube commenters, may of which have highlighted similarities to Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall games.

They see the player don a giant mech suit, clomping around alien planets and blowing stuff up. Bags of fun, and Titanfall 2’s story campaign is one of the all-time greats.

Has Atlas straight-up nicked its premise from that Xbox game? It was likely a stylistic inspiration, sure, but Titanfall itself was likely similarly inspired by Aliens, Halo, Half-Life and mecha anime series, among other properties.

Atlas is directed by Brad Peyton, who also made Rampage and San Andreas. Neither of those is a masterpiece, but you can have an absolute blast watching them. We hope for more of the same with Atlas.

• The best movies on Netflix