Review of Atomic Blonde (2017) by Wayne K — 16 Oct 2017

A film that tries way too hard to be deep, rich and complex, and instead ends up being dull, convoluted and impossible to care about, Atomic Blonde wastes a great cast on a story that thinks it's profound and unique but is essentially an amalgam of every spy thriller cliché ever committed to paper: Disgraced agents, foreign locations in chaos, a mass of betrayals, a guessing game as to who the real enemy is, henchmen who can't shoot straight and forget that punches and kicks are actually effective hand-to-hand combat techniques.

Charlize Theron feels adrift in the lead role, looking and sounding as if she couldn't care less about what going on. James McAvoy is delightfully sleazy and suspicious, but that personality was allowed much freer reign when he starred in Filth.

We never get much time to get to know the characters, and there's so many long, slow, uninvolving scenes of explaining the story while its happening that I soon gave up on trying to follow them. I will admit the fight scenes, while suffering from the aforementioned movie bad guy tropes, are good fun, and one that takes place in a stairway, which is shot in a single take, is exceptional.

The film keeps the number of baddies to a manageable level, so we can almost believe that Agent Debbie Harris could take them out on her own, but I still can't help thinking that cinema villains would be well advised to do something about their henchman training programmes.

All joking aside, Atomic Blonde had its moments, and the soundtrack is great, but its mostly a slog through uninteresting plotting and flat characterisation, with a heroine who spends more time being badass and cool than relatable.