Atomic Blonde - Movie Review

I have been intrigued by Atomic Blonde since I saw the first trailer. It looked like Jason Bourne with a female lead (Charlize Theron). Set against the backdrop of the Berlin Wall, it is a spy thriller that takes place in the days before the wall came down. The film felt more like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy than Bourne, but not as sharply focused as either.

Lorraine Broughton (Theron) has a list of skills (martial arts, multiple foreign languages, etc.) that make her uniquely qualified to investigate the murder of a fellow Mi6 agent in East Berlin. Her contact in Berlin is David Percival (James McAvoy) who she must rely upon to retrieve a list of double agents before it ends up in the hands of the Russians. The film is delivered in flashbacks as Broughton is debriefed on the events that transpired while she was in Berlin. Her handler, Eric Gray (Toby Jones), is joined in the interrogation by an American CIA Agent, Emmet Kurzfeld (John Goodman). Broughton lays out her narrative, while the flashbacks fill in some missing pieces. It is a decent story with a mildly predictable plot twist.

Atomic Blonde is based on the graphic novel The Coldest City, which is a trilogy. So we may get two more installments of the film. I'm okay with that. The story was typical spy fare, but with a graphic novel flare. The film was excruciatingly violent, with an opening scene of a man being hit by a car that looked disturbingly real. The fight scenes were well choreographed and the action was well paced. The action sequences were augmented with an obscenely loud soundtrack that featured songs from the 80s.

The soundtrack had much of the same feel as the movie, with plenty of techno and even some German songs. Whoever decided on which songs to include in an movie based in Berlin in the 80s decided to throw some recognizable German tunes in as well. There were three or four songs, but none of them from 1989 when this film took place. Most were early 80s. They were probably picked for their feel more than the exact time frame, so I don't think they were necessarily anachronistic. For the record, I really enjoyed the sound track. The mix of songs from the 80s still set the feel for the Berlin Wall era, even if they weren't precise to the year.

There were some small technical issues I had with the film. I get perturbed by dumb mistakes that films make. I understand that sometimes a glass will have more or less liquid in it from one scene to the other, but some mistakes are avoidable. For instance, when discussing the death of the agent that sets this film in motion, the news mentions that a 7.62 bullet was removed from the agent's head. The photo is of a shell casing. That irritates me. And it didn't look like 7.62 either. There was a chase scene where the heroin shoots through the back window four times, but there are no bullet holes in the glass. I could get more technical and talk about what happens when a bullet hits glass, but suffice it to say, there were several instances where the mistakes were technical. I am actually okay with the over-the-top fight scenes that were physiologically impossible. Or the fact that a trained female agent would try to fistfight rather than go for a gun. In totality, these amounted to niggles. Part of my own pedantic tendencies when I watch movies.

Taken as a whole, I enjoyed this film. Great pacing, an 80s soundtrack and frequent graphic novel worthy camera angles gave this film a unique feel. The story was decent and included enough of a plot twist to make it interesting. The narrative was supported by excellent performances (I had no idea Theron was a badass), good music and set in an interesting era. I wasn't awestruck by this film. I could have watched it on video and been just as happy. But I will probably watch the sequels. My rating is a solid 7.5/10. Worth seeing at a matinee or waiting for on video. But worth watching, nonetheless.

Video and photos courtesy of Denver and Delilah Productions