Review of Atomic Blonde (2017) by Greg C — 02 Aug 2017

Atomic Blonde may have the best trailers ever. Given its drab east European haunts, the scenery looks pretty good. Clearly Charlize Theron is one of the most attractive actresses working today by conventional standards.

Her fight scenes are fantastic. There is an interesting bit of spy craft (or bloodbath) in a stairwell. That pretty much sums up the movies strong points. Every character seems to have a mission of keeping the others off balance, and so Theron plays her role slightly understated.

There are no ebullient, joyful, or volcanic outbursts. It is all guarded or exhausted from a sequence of fight scenes, aka a little boring. The debriefing of the spy acts a frame in which the major action is told as flashback.

In the debriefing she feels tired. The debrief scenes could have been cut to give us the straight forward story and saved time, and give the story more uplift. James McAvoy, John Goodman, and the other supporting actors are good at their parts.

What's left is a little more than nitpicks. The movie suffers from coming out in the season of Wonder Woman where a movie has a beautiful female lead who is strong and gets it right. The sensual chemistry between Theron's character and Sofia Boutella's French spy feels like some guy's version of a lipstick l-word fantasy.

Theron and Boutella are slim and gorgeous. They steam up the screen, but oddly it feels like it demeans women. Overall though, I would see this movie a second time. Last but not least is the music. It is chocked full of my guilty and not so guilty pleasures from the 1980s New Wave era, especially those of German lineage.

But it is certainly heavy handed. Sure a little Berlin, Falco and Peter Schilling may make sense. But 2 versions of 99 Luftballons?! Seriously?