Atomic Blonde

'Atomic Blonde' is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again and it just doesn't lose its impact. When I saw the movie for the first time I had no expectations and I was more than convinced. Since then it is one of my favorite movies and that although it is certainly not a masterpiece.

In the intro, you already get a foretaste of the direction the movie is going to take, which is then consistently followed through. The movie doesn't lose its pace over the entire runtime. There is no real hole.

The entire atmosphere feels incredibly authentic. The whole thing is underpinned by a really stylish, cool and coherent soundtrack, which strongly underpins the images shown.

The only point of criticism is the plot. It seems a bit confused and essentially serves to explain why a character gets from A to B. The story isn't really complicated, but you still think to yourself at some points, just accept it and don't question it.

But you can turn a blind eye to that, because the actual plot is in the background for me here. The overall look and feel paired with the really strong fight choreography let you quickly overlook it.

And that brings us to the crucial point. The movie has incredibly strong fight scenes. The camera is close up throughout and all the fights look handmade. That's what I want to see and not cut-up action where you can't see anything or which is just bristling with GCI. Some action movies can take a leaf out of this book. Showing and not hinting is the motto here. One of the best scenes of the whole movie is a several minutes long plan sequence in a house. I find this impressive every time. In these moments, the movie reminds me of a reduced, well dosed John Wick, only the setting and the framework story appeals more to me personally.

All in all, 'Atomic Blonde' is a solid agent thriller, which can more than convince with its atmosphere, look and fight scenes. In terms of plot, familiar structures, motifs and sequences are used. If you can overlook that, then you can really have fun with the movie.

It's 1989 in the days before the fall of the Berlin wall. British agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is sent in to retrieve a list of agents. David Percival (James McAvoy) is her contact. Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella) becomes her lover. After the mission, she is debriefed by CIA Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman) and MI6 Eric Gray (Toby Jones).

There is the music, the action, and the lesbian sex. I love the hose fight. There is such great intensity. The car chase is also right up there. This movie has great sequences. The story itself is a muddle of unknowable characters and simplistic plot devices. The biggest sin is the flashforward debriefing scene. It takes away the danger and it also grinds down the pacing. It should have been done straight up timeline. This could have been a fun spy romp but the storytelling is so jumbo that I stopped caring about the plot or the characters.

I love Charlize, but I'm getting a little tired of James, as he seems to be everywhere lately. This movie looked great, and I love the era, especially with the background story of the Berlin wall, but I just didn't care about the characters much, nor the story. The action was fantastic though, and I wish there were more of it. Perhaps a laugh or too occasionally would have helped as well.

The action was really cool even though i almost got bored of it in the middle of the movie, as for the story, it gets good at first, then getting really bad, more like a downhill.

The characters are even complicated, you don't know whether they're good or bad it made it much worse.

So many negative reviews - why I wondered. Then it sunk in. Many viewers misunderstood the premise. This film was adapted from a graphic novel series, basically adult comic books. Don't compare it to The Spy who Came in from the Cold; instead think Sin City.

It's obviously a vehicle for Charlize Theron, and it works. Whenever she's in a scene (which is almost every scene), it's impossible to take your eyes off her. I have one question: When she emerges from the ice bath in the beginning and we see her looking at her reflection, how did they manage the lighting & camera to make her eyes look almost reptilian?