Atomic Blonde Movie Review

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Rent Atomic Blonde on Amazon Video // Buy the graphic novel
Written by: Kurt Johnstad (screenplay by), Antony Johnston (based on the Oni Press graphic novel series "The Coldest City" written by) and Sam Hart (based on the Oni Press graphic novel series "The Coldest City" illustrated by)
Directed by: David Leitch
Starring:  Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella. Bill Skarsgård, Toby Jones
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

Verdict
I liked this before it started due to the '80s setting, cold war, and punk style. It delivers. Charlize Theron, fight choreography, music, and style make up for the shortcomings of the story. There's an absolutely amazing fight towards the end that alone makes this movie worth watching. Atomic Blonde only bolsters the fact that Theron is becoming an action movie star.
Watch it.

Review
This certainly relies on style over substance, but there's enough to it that it's enjoyable and fun. It has a subtle humor and apathetic attitude that make it feel punk, like the movie doesn't care if you like it or not. The soundtrack is great. I was sold in the first twenty minutes.

This is a spy story and unfortunately, it never becomes all that engrossing. It's the kind of movie where after you've seen it once you'd fast forward to the fight scenes. The fighting is great, from choreography to environment use. In an early fight Lorraine (Charlize Theron) uses wire and a pot to great effect during an apartment encounter. She's a great if underdeveloped character, completely cool and always in control of a situation.

The big fight is the stairwell. It's brutal, but it also has the characters look and act tired. That's not something we usually see and it adds a great layer of realism while allowing viewers to take a breath. As this fight unfolds you wonder just how long the camera is going to hold the shot. It's a great one take and the absence of music, in a movie that up to this point has relied on music heavily, focuses the action.  
This is director David Leitch's first credited film, but he did a few scenes for John Wick and was a stunt man before that.

The editing throughout shows a lot of care in how we enter and exit scenes. The details add a nice touch of craft, though the weak attribute is the story. The movie overcomes that and even framing the story with Lorraine talking to the CIA and MI6 about her recently completed mission isn't all that bad. I was hoping the movie might play with what happens versus what she says more. That could have helped set up the ending. I won't spoil it, but it's a surprise with a few twists that could have been embedded throughout. This pulls on a lot of threads at the end to wrap things up, but feel a little cheap.