Atomic Blonde – Film Review

The things this film gets right is definitely the tone of the 80’s and the style that highlights not only what 80’s action movies could have been but how to make a female character an action hero or anti-hero without gender being a factor in the plot. I really appreciated how they made Charlize Theron’s character to be the focus of the film without her gender being a problem, plot point, or a hinderance to the story should be applauded. Atomic Blonde is that great summer action flick that isn’t apologetic to what it wants to do or say. It doesn’t look down to the audience or betray them.

The main issue I had with the film was the film’s framework that they chose to have the story flow and intercut between the interrogation sequence and the full plot of the film. I wish they hadn’t done that to help the tension of the film to know if she makes it out of the mission alive, it broke that for me and made me feel why should I care if I know she lives. The editing otherwise was pretty great. The cinematography and color palettes were very pleasing to see and they did a solid job to give this property, “The Coldest City” a graphic novel, it’s own style and color aesthetic.

You can’t un-fuck what’s been fucked.

Overall I really recommend this film to any action film fan to see. Visually great on the big screen. It can be seen both on the big screen and the small screen without it losing anything cinematically. I felt that “John Wick 2” had more visual style than this film but I think that this film had a better story than that film which leaves viewers feeling satisfied with a complete story. The locations were great, and though the film is set during 1989 in Berlin, the Berlin Wall backdrop is a great context but I felt like it was just a tool and didn’t need to be in the plot. The setting never seemed to support the movie needing to be in 1989.

The cast is fantastic from James McAvoy being a clever supporting character, Sofia Boutella’s character being a solid romantic interest, to Toby Jones and John Goodman being intelligence administrators to great cameos by Bill Skaarsgard. Charlize herself is a great actress who makes her fight sequences believable and creates this great character of Lorraine Broughton. I would see another entry of this character with a new mission somewhere else in the world.

8.5/10