Review of Atomic Blonde (2017) by Someone132 — 11 Aug 2017

Atomic Blonde is stylish and very well-shot, but gets increasingly dumb as it keeps on going. Same is true of many action films, of course: the problem here is that it's more of a spy drama, and latter half simply doesn't have enough action to distract you from how transparent and perfunctory the plot beats become.

As it is, the film has several cool action scenes at first, but literally peaks midway through, at a 10-minute long fight scene inside an empty apartment block, which is torturous in a good way: neither Theron's character nor her assailants have the weapons to end it quickly, and so they end up wearing each other down with bloody,yet inconclusive wounds. At certain points, they are both forced to stop and catch their breath for a while, before slowly continuing to fight. It's a little reminiscent of the final showdown in The Revenant, now that I think about it.

Afterwards, though, there's literally nothing special. Most characters either predictably die or end up irrelevant, someone suspected of being a traitor an hour ago lives up to it, and the final twist exposes a myriad of plotholes, and makes the behaviour of several characters largely inexplicable. There's not much thematic weight either: lesbian romantic line is just there, and while you are regularly reminded of Berlin Wall's impending fall through the incessant TV broadcasts, the main plotline and characters are completely independent of it, with not much actual reflection, or accompanying existential dread on GDR side.