Atlas

You couldn’t blame moviegoers for becoming desensitized by this time to dystopian cautionary tales like Atlas, in which proliferating artificial intelligence threatens to wipe out its human creators.

This slick and stylish science-fiction thriller feels like only a slight variation on familiar themes, with the action sequences adopting a video-game mentality that diminishes the human stakes and emotional depth.

The story is set several decades in the future, after AI has run amok and cyborgs have killed millions of people by infiltrating their minds through a syncing process known as “neurolinking.”

Atlas (Jennifer Lopez) is particularly sensitive to the conflict because her late mother was a developer of robots like Harlan (Simu Liu), who evolved into a terrorist mastermind before being exiled to a distant planet.

Her resulting skepticism has left Atlas ostracized from her peers as a data analyst. Still, she’s lured by a government official (Mark Strong) to join a mission to track down and destroy a rogue humanoid alongside a veteran pilot (Sterling K. Brown).

When catastrophe strikes, suddenly Atlas is left on her own. Burdened by emotional trauma, her resilience and resolve are tested during a perilous intergalactic journey during which she learns Harlan’s motives for destroying humanity — and that her ability to finally stop him might hinge on learning to trust the same AI she’s always feared.

As directed by Brad Peyton (San Andreas), this outer-space vigilante saga features some cool world-building concepts, futuristic dynamics, and high-tech gadgetry as part of an intriguing narrative foundation.

However, the formulaic screenplay seems to make up the rules as it goes along, skimping on contextual details while stringing together contrived confrontations that funnel toward an inevitable final showdown against the odds.

While technology is vulnerable to hacks and glitches, humans have survival instincts that can’t be programmed or overridden. As conveyed here, that muddled message about coexistence feels hollow rather than provocative.

Acting by herself for large sections of the film, Lopez handles the physical rigors yet rarely convinces in the title role, trying to project a hardened determination that comes off as cold and robotic rather than sympathetic.

Emphasizing spectacle over substance, it’s an unfortunate and unintentional irony that Atlas feels churned out by algorithms and chatbots.

Rated PG-13, 118 minutes.