Atomic Blonde

Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Eddie Marsan, John Goodman, Toby Jones, James Faulkner, Sofia Boutella, Bill Skarsgard, Roland Moller, Til Schweiger
Directed by: David Leitch
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An undercover agent (Charlize Theron) goes to Berlin to investigate the murder of a fellow agent.

Review:

Tim: Atomic Blonde is an interesting spy thriller. It's based on a graphic novel, takes place in 1989 in Berlin, features a nonlinear story, and some impressive fight sequences. It's a good movie, from start to finish. And yet, even though I enjoyed the movie, I can't say I was quite as impressed as others seemed to be. This is a win- any time you make a good movie, you have to respect that. However, there's this nagging sensation that it should have been even better.

The story is fairly complex, especially as the movie jumps back-and-forth through time. We see snippets of a conversation in present day, and then go back to the events. This has been done before and it was fine, but it did add another layer of complexity. It felt like there was a lot here, with different factions all trying to get a piece of microfilm. On top of keeping everyone straight (which takes some effort), you also have a series of double-crosses (or suspected double-crosses) and so it's very hard to know who actually works for whom, who is operating independently, etc. I know this was intentional- it's one of those, "you can't trust anyone" scenarios, but it made it a little difficult to watch the film. I didn't know who I should care about, or if I should care about anyone. We're obviously supposed to root for Charlize Theron, but we're not really told why this is. We can't really trust her, either. It creates this weird feeling of being dropped into a story and not really being able to identify with anyone at an emotional level. The movie assumes we'll be rooting for Theron since she's in the lead role, but the story never really gives us a compelling reason to care about her or trust her. We can't trust anyone, including the protagonist. It creates this weird disconnected feeling that pervaded the entire movie.

I know this was a passion project for Theron. She's certainly believable as this expert assassin. I thought her performance was good, but I wouldn't say I loved it. She was strong and brave, yet she wears so many different masks, it didn't feel like we were really able to connect with her character. She was cool, but kept at a distance from us. James McAvoy gave a good performance, but he wasn't the most likeable of characters. He kept us guessing, so I suppose that's good. I really liked John Goodman and Toby Jones in smaller supporting roles. I wasn't very impressed with Sofia Boutella. This is twice now I've seen her in a movie and been underwhelmed by the result. As a whole, the cast was slightly above average.

This movie was directed by one half of John Wick's directing team, David Leitch. That was a great choice, because he brings some of that brutal fight choreography to this film. Atomic Blonde features some great fight scenes and action sequences. The highlight is probably the stairway fight, followed by the car chase near the end. That scene featured some truly exceptional action moments. That aspect of the film was great- the focus on legitimate action sequences (the art of which seems to have been mostly lost). Now, that being said, while the scenes are good, they aren't John Wick-level. Plus, we legitimately cared about the main character there, which didn't quite happen here.

While I did enjoy Atomic Blonde, it didn't feel as different as it intended to be. The eighties soundtrack, the bisexual subplot- there's all these things the movie did to be different. That's fine, but they don't make a movie great by themselves. They certainly add to the film, but the story could have been tighter and clearer, and we could have been given more of a reason to care. I will say there was a pretty cool twist at the end. It might not have been as shocking as the writers hoped, but it was effective. I did enjoy the movie. I'm not exactly clamoring for the sequel, but I wouldn't be sad to revisit this world.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: John Wick, Mad Max: Fury Road, Wanted