Visually, I love Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It’s gorgeous.

I love Mike Mignola’s style, which permeates everything in this movie. I’m very fond of his Hellboy comics, and had no trouble with this movie’s resulting un-Disney-like animation. Admittedly, some of the animation choices felt a little weird, like the animators struggled at times to convert the character designs into moving figures in ways that felt good. Yet at other points (especially in the movie’s climactic fight scenes) those same characters moved fluidly and naturally through a variety of perspectives, surpassing my expectations beautifully. My love of Mignola’s designs smoothed over the awkward bits for me, and I was very happy overall. If you don’t like Mignola’s art style, or you don’t like the movie’s character designs, you might not enjoy this as much as I did.

Narrative-wise, this movie is… fine? It’s both good and bad.

I love adventure stories, which Atlantis is. I love them so much that I’ll put up with a lot. That said…

Atlantis is predictable. I’m familiar enough with adventure stories like this one that I paused this movie about half way in and called all the ensuing big twists. I did list a few potential options that weren’t used, but I wasn’t surprised by anything that followed. For the most part, Atlantis was predictable in ways that I found fun. Lots of fun! At its worst, Atlantis’s predictable plot was aggravating but bearable.

But it was bearable for me, someone who likes adventure stories and is willing to put up with some stupidity, including old stupid gendered tropes. You know your tolerances better than I do. I’ll elaborate more on those tropes in the spoilers later.

Suffice to say, Atlantis: The Lost Empire made some troublesome narrative choices; this movie has big plot holes that I’m sure the writers knew existed, yet didn’t resolve. If you can’t accept a few plot holes that you can drive a whole movie through, including a nonsensical Damseling, then you should avoid watching this movie sober (or maybe at all). If you’re able to have fun with a movie despite that, you might like this one. That goes doubly if you enjoy adventure stories that are approximately half-aware of the value of not regurgitating old imperialist and colonialist tropes.

More specifics (and mild *SPOILERS*) ahead.

When I say half-aware, I mean that this movie is certainly trying to land on the right side of history. Our naive protagonist Milo loves discovery for the sake of discovery. He is surprised to find living Atlanteans, and argues in favor of respecting the Atlanteans and their traditions instead of robbing them blind. He’s a Nice Boy. He’s exactly the kind of character you want for your adventure story if you don’t want to glorify the ghoulish pillaging done by many historical Western adventurers.

True to form, Milo is disgusted to learn that his mercenary coworkers are willing to steal a sacred and poorly understood power source from the Atlanteans. He’s delighted that they found Atlantis at all, and thinks that everyone should be satisfied with reestablishing contact and with the thrill of discovering that Atlantis was real. He stands up to his peers when they push on to loot Atlantis, and only gives way when the villains make armed threats (he’s a scholar, not a fighter). So far, so good for an adventure story!

Then the movie walks straight up to white savior tropes, arms wide open, and embraces them with glee. It’s a weird choice, made worse by the series of big plot holes which I mentioned earlier. Some of these plot holes could have been papered over with a simple in-setting justification or two. Others require *BIGGER SPOILERS* to discuss.

I won’t discuss all the plot holes, but here are a few that rankled me.

First, the ‘fallen ancient civilization’ trope is classic, and shows up here. The Atlanteans seem unable to read their own written language, and thus have lost access to some of their pre-fall technology. We do have real-world examples of people unable to read their own ancestral writing systems for a variety of reasons… but none of those reasons are incorporated or mentioned in this movie. Worse, there are several pieces of story background which are mentioned that directly contradict those reasons, making the ‘fallen ancient civilization’ trope harder to swallow.

Atlantis is filled with ancient pre-fall Atlanteans (including the king and his daughter Kida) who’ve apparently lived thousands of years. Given that both the king and Kida are still alive, presumably many other Atlanteans are similarly old. Kida was a toddler at Atlantis’s fall, so I wouldn’t expect her to know how to read, or use pre-fall tech… but she could have been taught post-fall. Surely some of the survivors besides the king would remember how to read or use pre-fall Atlantean technology. Even if the king didn’t want anyone to risk using Atlantean tech as a weapon (his stated reason for hiding Atlantis’s power source), he couldn’t have prevented some people from continuing to know how to read, or teaching others how to read, and thereby passing on old traditions.

I had to avoid thinking too hard about all that during the movie.

Second, shortly before the movie’s climax, the dying king passes a powerful Atlantean crystal (an access key to Atlantean tech) to Milo, and tells him to go save his daughter. This trope is expected (of course the natives need the white protagonist to save them, that’s the trope!) and badly delivered. It feels trite, and unmotivated by the narrative up to that point.

There were any number of other Atlanteans around. The king could have charged them with the duty instead. Heck, the movie could have had its cake and eaten it too; the king could have told his subjects to break his old commandment to hide Atlantean tech, and then begged Milo—who’d already demonstrated he disagreed with his old comrades—to use his knowledge of the modern world to help his people use their old powers to face down the looters and save his daughter. There’d still be some white savior-ness, but it would be softened. 

Third, and definitely the worst plot hole… Kida clearly gains Phenomenal Cosmic Power shortly before the climax of the movie. Then, she willingly climbs into a box and and is turned into a MacGuffin. She uses none of that power to free herself or defeat the baddies, nor does she exercise any agency beyond—I guess—reassuring Milo that everything will be fine. This narrative choice sticks in my craw. I find it painful.

The movie makes no effort to convey why she accepts being MacGuffined instead of just wiping away the looters with her Phenomenal Cosmic Power. Can I come up with reasons? Yes. Maybe she can see the future. Maybe she plans to free herself a little later. Are those reasons satisfying? No. Do they make that narrative choice satisfying to watch? No. It’s a classic, blatant Damsel-in-Distress moment without any in-narrative explanation. Honestly, this is the reason why I’d hesitate to recommend the movie, or why I’d caveat any recommendation with a big “ya gotta watch out for…”. It just feels stupid.

Far more minor, more of a footnote: the movie missed an opportunity to follow through on character growth for Helga (the villain’s badass lieutenant). She has a moment shortly before the halfway mark when she seems to have some reservations about the plan (which she knows but the audience doesn’t yet) to steal the Atlanteans’ stuff. She could have had a couple other later lines, or just reactions, to convey her internal conflict through the rest of the movie. She didn’t get those. I think she would have been way more interesting as a character if she’d been given that chance. I wonder, based on that throwaway line, whether that character arc was planned for her and then cut from the final product.

*END SPOILERS*

So, in conclusion, is this a good movie? Maybe.

I enjoyed it, even if parts of it made me grind my teeth. The visuals are a delight. And I love adventure stories, even when they annoy me.

If you know that you’ll be enraged when a character is Damseled, or when some White Savior tropes come out to play, avoid this. If you love Mike Mignola’s art style, watch it for that. If you want to share an exciting adventure story with someone young and you’re ready and willing to talk about some problematic tropes, this movie is perfect.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire has baggage, and it isn’t the best movie. For all that, I still had fun.