Review of Atomic Blonde (2017) by Luke A — 14 Aug 2017

Atomic Blonde is yet another exercise of style over substance. These can be considered masterful for certain films (The Neon Demon) or borderline mediocre for others (Only God Forgives). Unfortunately, I found this to be in the latter category.

Yes, I was ever so slightly underwhelmed. I wanted more but everything felt so restrained, like being tied up by Charlize Theron...view that as good or bad entirely up to you. Lorraine, the damn sexiest spy that ever lived, is sent to Berlin to retrieve a list of agents from an individual known as "Spyglass" in which she meets up with fellow station officer David Percival.

But, as with most spy films, we've got a whole lot of backstabbing and a whole lot of tape recording. Penned the female John Wick, Atomic Blonde has several beautifully crafted action scenes and I'm sure everyone who has seen it will agree that the stairway fight was possibly one of the best scenes this year.

Edited to look like one long take, it was flipping majestic to watch. Charlize Theron, as we all know, is sexy, sassy and a badass. She's no different here, it's as if heaven sent down an action Goddess.

..in the form of Theron. Perfection, this was her film and she owned it. Having said that, her character is either consuming alcohol, smoking or submerging herself in an ice cold bath...so maybe not perfect? James McAvoy and the rest of the supporting cast were good.

Adored the 1980's Berlin setting and the soundtrack was ace. I admired David Leitch's style once again, great use of neon lighting. All of this is great but one problem, the plot was so so so dull, monotonous, lifeless and dare I say boring? Urgh, I wanted to love this but I couldn't.

It was such a generic boring spy story that I practically forgot about it as soon as I left the cinema. That, is not a good thing...at all. Also the narrative for the first half was all over the place, switching back and forth constantly between scenes was rather jarring.

Disappointing in the script department. Apart from those massive blunders, it's actually not too bad. Just...underwhelming.