Harry Situation Reviews: Atomic Blonde

Blonde. James (or Jane) Blonde. 

Atomic Blonde is the new action spy thriller movie starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, and John Goodman. It is the end of the Cold War and elite MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (played by Charlize Theron) is tasked with finding a list of a list of double agents after a fellow agent was killed in the process. She lands in Berlin where she meets an eccentric station chief (played by James McAvoy) and a sexy French operative (played by Sofia Boutella), and the clock is ticking to find this list on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

This movie looked cool. The trailers made it look cool. It looked like a mix of James Bond meets John Wick. But after seeing it, I walked out thinking, "Meh."

So the good stuff, Charlize Theron kicks ass. Personally I think Theron can perfectly play one of two roles: a badass or a bitch. Here she plays a badass bitch, and she does it effectively well.

The supporting cast is also good. Boutella was hot and sexy, and she had good chemistry with Theron. James McAvoy is a helluva lot of fun. I feel if you put him in any movie in any role—good or bad—he will be the best part. 

The action was very cool too. I think the best sequence was there as a part when Charlize Theron had to fight a bunch of guys on a stairway. There was gunfire, punching, kicking, ball-sacking, there's a lot of shit going on during this sequence.

Unfortunately there is nothing that felt original, or anything new to make this film stand out from other spy movies. It felt like I was watching the same movie that I've seen a hundred times in other spy movies. The plot is about a list of agents, I've seen that in Bourne Identity. The movie is very gritty and violent, I've seen that in John Wick. Even that totally cool stair fight sequence I've mentioned in the paragraph above, I know where they might have gotten that. Somebody may have been like, "Hey I just watched the second season of Daredevil, and they had a cool fight sequence involving a stairway. I think we can do something similar."

You could argue that this film has a hot lesbian sex scene involving Theron and Boutella; and while admitting that it was kinda hot to watch, this is no different than any other sex scene involving spies and the "Bond girl".

And the pacing, fucking hell, I felt like I was there for an extra hour because this movie felt way too slow. The film shouldn't have to feel like it's been dragged on. And worst of all the editing is kinda a mess. The whole movie is told in flashback. It starts with Theron being interviewed by Jones and Goodman, and then the real story starts. There are also moments where there's a flashback within a flashback and sometimes the flashbacks don't transition well enough. See the film, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Overall I wasn't really blown away by this movie. I think that it is a stretch to call this film female James Bond. However, that's my personal opinion of the film and you shouldn't feel discouraged by this review from seeing it yourself. Maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did, or maybe not. 

                                   Positives:                              Negatives:

                                  -Theron is badass bitch         -Slow pacing

                                  -Supporting cast                   -Choppy editing

                                  -Cool action                         -Adds nothing new

Final Grade: C

So there's my review of Atomic Blonde. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Can you name a badass blonde? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check back again for more reviews here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Russian Comrade: "Take this, bitch!"

Lorraine Broughton: "Am I still your bitch now?"