Atomic Blonde Review – Spoiler Free
Watching Atomic Blonde taught me several things. First is that Charlize Theron is a total badass and I have a huge amount of respect for her ability. Second That James McAvoy is a better actor than I had anticipated and is more than just a young Professor X. Finally, that I have a huge movie crush on Sofia Boutella, I will be sure to follow her career closely as her performance in ‘The Mummy (2017)’ and now this film has left me very impressed.
This movie from David Leitch, who was a stunt director on John Wick (2014), has everything that a fan of spy and action movies could possibly want in a film. A plot that isn’t easy to see through, good action, great acting and plenty of backstabbing.
Set towards the end of the cold war in a still walled Berlin, Atomic Blonde dumps you straight into the action with a great cold start to the film. It also has a small callback to ‘Fight Club (1999)’ on which the Director did some work as a stunt double.
It’s hard to describe this movie without first giving away too much of the plot so I have instead been describing it as if Bourne, Die Hard and Bond all came together and created a movie with a female lead. Charlize Theron may be the pick for a female Bond by some in Hollywood, but after watching this movie I feel that making a female Bond movie would be a shadow of how great this movie is without the 007 name attached to it.
Theron is amazing, her performance in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Fate of the Furious (2017) and even in The Huntsman: Winters War (2016), have proved beyond doubt that she is one of the best in the business at the moment and her performance in Atomic Blonde just solidifies her position further in my eyes.
Of course, no movie is the same without a strong supporting cast and in this James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella and Roland Moller all play their roles with perfection. McAvoy is a great foil against Theron’s more stoic character and Boutella provides a solid source of plot momentum. Finally, though credit needs to be given to Moller for his role as the visible villain in the whole movie. He’s really about the only honest character in the entire film, his motivations and ideals are clear as day to the whole audience, but the other three are all spies to their cores and their allegiances to each other and their own countries is shaky at best.
2017 continues to be a great year for films and as a movie enthusiast I couldn’t be happier for the continued high caliber of films that are hitting our screens this year. Atomic Blonde is yet another in a long list of great films. Likely to be something of a cult classic as the years pass by.
If you enjoy spy movies and action with a good helping of intrigue then this film is for you. Be sure to see it while you can on the big screen.
