Hey everyone! I'm not dead! If you want to see more reviews, the post here...in this thread. If not, then that's cool too.
Title: Atomic Blonde
Year: 2017
Country of Origin: Germany/US
Director: David Leitch
Plot: Some spies chase a mcguffin around Berlin.
Review: The marketing for
Atomic Blonde could be best summed up as: lady John Wick with at least one excellent action sequence in the film.
Given that this David Leitch?s follow up to
John Wick, the attempt to draw some sort of connection is not all that surprising. Let?s get this straight through; if you are looking for something in the same vein to John Wick, you might want to look elsewhere. Atomic Blonde is very much a spy film first and it comes with all the confused plotting and bloated pacing that you would expect from the sub-genre. The plot follows the standard tropes of the spy fiction with missing NOC lists and double agents to uncover. You?ve probably seen everything here done before and definitely better. The lone bright spot is James McAvoy?s character David Percival; a disillusioned British agent embedded in Berlin who seems to have lost interest in both basic morality and duty to his nation. Honestly, I would have preferred if the film was just his character grappling with the end of the Cold War and the end of his relevancy?something almost touched upon in the actual film.
Speaking of performances, Charlize Theron is fantastic. I mean her character is a little bland, but she is great. This along with Mad Max: Fury Road has made Charlize a legitimate action star. As far as the action goes, the one scene used over and over again the marketing is excellent. It plays out over a ?single-take? and carries with it the type of visceral umph seen in
John Wick and
The Raid. Unfortunately the action scenes are few and can?t quite make up for the film?s weaknesses.
There is also one more thing I want to comment on and that is the film?s setting. I?m officially tired of the 80s pastiche that has shown up in the last five or so years.
Atomic Blonde takes place what could have been an interesting setting?Berlin just days before the fall of the wall, but doesn?t explore much deeper than 80s pop hits and a weird fixation on Berlin?s punk movement. Occasionally the film does something interesting with its setting, like a fight taking place in an Eastern Berlin theater showing a revival of Stalker, but as a whole feels hollow.
Overall, the film is watchable and does feature some great action sequences?but in the end it is undone by its mediocre plot and bloated pacing.
[6.5/10]
