Atomic Blonde is a 2017 American action spy thriller film directed by David Leitch, in his first solo directorial credit, and written by Kurt Johnstad. It is based on Antony Johnston and Sam Hart's 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City, published by Oni Press, which revolves around a spy who has to find a list of double agents who are being smuggled into the West on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The film stars Charlize Theron and James McAvoy, with John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella and Toby Jones in supporting roles.
Cast:
Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton, a top-level MI6 field agent.
James McAvoy as David Percival, an eccentric Berlin station chief who becomes an ally of Broughton.
John Goodman as Emmett Kurzfeld, a CIA agent working with MI6.
Til Schweiger as The Watchmaker, a mysterious ally of MI6 who creates and crafts clocks and watches.
Eddie Marsan as Spyglass, a Stasi defector who stole the List.
Sofia Boutella as Delphine Lasalle, an undercover French agent.
Toby Jones as Eric Gray, Broughton's MI6 superior.
Bill Skarsgård as Merkel, Broughton's MI6 mission assistant.
Sam Hargrave as James Gasciogne, a deceased MI6 agent who was close to Lorraine.
James Faulkner as Chief C, head of MI6.
Roland Møller[5] as Aleksander Bremovych, a ruthless Russian-German billionaire arms dealer who leads an espionage ring.
Plot: (Full Spoilers)
In 1989, on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the shifting of superpower alliances, MI6 agent James Gasciogne is shot and killed by KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin, who steals the List, a piece of microfilm concealed in a wristwatch that contains the names of every active field agent in the Soviet Union. Ten days later, Lorraine Broughton, a top-level spy for MI6, is brought in to be interrogated by MI6 executive Eric Gray and CIA agent Emmett Kurzfeld about her mission to Berlin.
The day after Gasciogne's death, Lorraine is dispatched to Berlin to recover the List and assassinate Satchel, a double agent who has sold lots of intelligence to the Soviets for years and who betrayed Gasciogne. When she arrives in Berlin, she is immediately ambushed by KGB agents working for arms dealer and KGB associate Aleksander Bremovych. Lorraine then meets with her main contact, agent David Percival. After failing to find any immediate leads, Lorraine investigates Gasciogne's apartment and discovers a picture of him and Percival, and is then ambushed by the Volkspolizei. She realizes only Percival knew she was going to the apartment, and begins to suspect him of being Satchel. Lorraine also encounters Delphine Lasalle, a naive French agent, and enters into a relationship with her.
Bakhtin declares his intention to sell the List to the highest bidder. Percival, having been tipped off, kills him and takes the List for himself. He then meets with Bremovych to arrange the transfer of the List to him, which Lasalle photographs. Percival offers to escort the defector who stole and memorized the List, a Stasi officer codenamed Spyglass, and his family across the border to West Berlin. However, he then shoots Spyglass and tips off Bremovych's men, and despite Lorraine's best efforts, Spyglass is killed. Percival then goes to Lasalle's apartment and kills her to cover his own tracks. When Lorraine arrives too late to save her, she discovers the photographs taken by Lasalle proving Percival to be Satchel. As Percival burns his safehouse and attempts to flee, Lorraine tracks him down, kills him, and takes the List.
In the present day, Lorraine presents MI6 with the photographs as well as spliced audio recordings painting Percival as a traitor, and denies knowing the List's current whereabouts, forcing the agency to close the case. Three days later, she meets with Bremovych in Paris, revealing herself to be Satchel. Lorraine gives him a fake List, but Bremovych admits he knows she set him up. Lorriane kills his henchmen, and before killing him reveals she was manipulating events from the very beginning. She then meets with Kurzfeld, revealing herself to be a triple agent planted by the CIA, before returning with him to Langley.
The Verdict:
I saw this film over the release weekend after being intrigued by the few trailers that were going around and I was curious why this film wasn't getting more publicity, especially when people made a huge deal about wanting more female-led films after the success of Wonder Woman a few months ago.
On paper and first glance, it seems like a gender swap of John Wick (actually directed by the same directors FYI...), but it's actually far from that. It's not a revenge story, but a Cold War spy thriller. The narrative took a while for me to warm up to it, but once the ball got rolling I was with this film to the end. The narrative itself isn't that good, but the skull-splitting fight sequences were what kept me interested here from start to finish. Whereas John Wick films are mostly known for the gunplay, Atomic Blonde goes with pure visceral hand-to-hand combat in majority of it's fight sequences. I found myself uttering "Oh shit..." and "Goddamn..." more times than I would care to admit during the theatrical screening during these scenes. I will admit that the last sequence took far too many cues from John Wick for my taste to say they had a good thing going to distance themselves from being compared to those films up to that point.
In terms of casting, I felt everyone played their roles perfectly here. I tend to like James McAvoy in these roles like this a lot more than I do seeing him playing Professor Xavier in the X-Men movies as of late, but that's a subject entirely for another day. McAvoy excels in these "shady" character roles and playing the part of Percival here. Seriously, what is up with John Goodman of all people landing all of these roles in movies as of late as government officials and what not? He's good at what he does, but he's starting to get a little typecast in those parts lately. Sofia Boutella seemed to be here for pure eye candy, but I had no problem with seeing her naked in this. I joked to a friend after seeing her naked in this that I couldn't take her seriously as the "monster" in The Mummy (2017) when I finally went back to watch that after seeing this film. For her sake, I'm glad that movie came out first or most people probably may have felt the same way. Sadly, Sofia Boutella's character ends up being a waste outside of being a clever plot device for exposing Percival's true intentions. As for the female lead in this, Charlize Theron definitely carried her weight and then some in this film. I will say this much though. Theron has a knack for commanding the focus and attention on herself with her screen presence, as well as being able to do so while making herself look as unattractive/appealing as possible or seamlessly transitioning to that looks could kill appearance. When she turns it on to look visually appealing/attractive when needed, she reminds me of Kate Beckinsale during the height of her popularity when the Underworld films were booming. That shouldn't come as a surprise though for most as she definitely held her own as Cypher - AKA the main villainess in Fast & Furious 8 a few months ago.
In terms of the narrative though, this film drags a bit in its opening moments before things pick up. Fortunately for this film, they have McAvoy and Theron's performances to keep things interesting, along with the stellar action sequences in this film. If it wasn't for those two factors, I would have been bored to sleep in this. There was a moment where I thought the film was going to fall into the course of predictability in terms of who was the "double agent" but I was relieved that it wasn't that basic and lazy of a plot.
I know that this was a rather brief review, but there's not much to say about a film like this. You're either here for the action with a bad ass female lead kicking all kinds of ass in this film, or you're here for a spy thriller in same vein of John Wick. You get a bit of both worlds here, but it's a far cry from perfect. The film drags on at points, with it's only saving graces are the long action sequences by Theron with sheer bone-crushing brutality from most of these hand-to-hand affairs.
Is this a bad movie? Nah, far from it really. I suggest giving this a shot if you're into the John Wick style action films. Everyone else might be a little gun shy about watching a woman take as much physical punishment as Charlize Theron's character endures and dishes out over the course of this film from start to finish.
Would I like to see a sequel of this film? Yes, but at the same time, I felt that this was a one and done affair. It didn't feel like a story that warranted a sequel. All of the loose ends were wrapped up by the time the credits rolled and there's not much more they could do contained in this moment within time.
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| McAvoy and Theron definitely were a joy to watch together and see them play off each other. |
In terms of the narrative though, this film drags a bit in its opening moments before things pick up. Fortunately for this film, they have McAvoy and Theron's performances to keep things interesting, along with the stellar action sequences in this film. If it wasn't for those two factors, I would have been bored to sleep in this. There was a moment where I thought the film was going to fall into the course of predictability in terms of who was the "double agent" but I was relieved that it wasn't that basic and lazy of a plot.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
I know that this was a rather brief review, but there's not much to say about a film like this. You're either here for the action with a bad ass female lead kicking all kinds of ass in this film, or you're here for a spy thriller in same vein of John Wick. You get a bit of both worlds here, but it's a far cry from perfect. The film drags on at points, with it's only saving graces are the long action sequences by Theron with sheer bone-crushing brutality from most of these hand-to-hand affairs.
Is this a bad movie? Nah, far from it really. I suggest giving this a shot if you're into the John Wick style action films. Everyone else might be a little gun shy about watching a woman take as much physical punishment as Charlize Theron's character endures and dishes out over the course of this film from start to finish.
Would I like to see a sequel of this film? Yes, but at the same time, I felt that this was a one and done affair. It didn't feel like a story that warranted a sequel. All of the loose ends were wrapped up by the time the credits rolled and there's not much more they could do contained in this moment within time.
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