Atomic Blonde (2017)
“You know those movies where the picture just starts to slow down…and melt? Then catch fire? Well, that’s Berlin.” – Lorraine.
Atomic Blonde (2017)
Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Kurt Johnstad
Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, James Falkner
Do you love action movies? Do you love spy movies? If you answered yes to either of these questions you will absolutely bloody love Atomic Blonde. That’s because this is the best spy movie since Skyfall and probably shares the mantle with John Wick (another David Leitch masterpiece) and Mission:Impossible-Fallout as the best action movies of the 2010s.
Atomic Blonde is a screenplay adaptation by Kurt Johnstad of the graphic novel series ‘The Coldest City’ written by Anthony Johnston and illustrated by Sam Hart. The movie follows undercover British M16 agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron), who is sent to Berlin on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s to team up with fellow M16 agent David Percival (McAvoy). Their mission is to recover a missing list of double agents, which would destroy Allied intelligence efforts during the Cold War should it fall into the wrong hands. Lorraine also hunts for a mysterious mole, codename ‘Satchel’, who has been leaking M16 secrets to the Soviets.
I loveeeeed this film. It oozes cool from start to finish, with a killer soundtrack (1980s bangers throughout), amazing cinematography, and meticulous fight scene choreography. The story is also a lot of fun, with each character (even Lorraine) clearly hiding secrets from one another and the audience. Espionage at it’s finest, split between the muted greys, blues and browns of grimy Berlin backstreets to the neon glamour of hotel rooms and bars. Simply put, it’s a great combination of aesthetics, story and action, with fantastic pacing throughout.
The cast literally and figuratively kicks butt here, with Charlize embodying the beautiful yet lethal female agent, and McEvoy playing the grimy undercover field agent perfectly. Both are great, with Charlize flexing her action chops once again to further extend her lead as Best Female Action Star of the 2000s. John Goodman, Toby Jones and James Falkner play their role as the M16 and CIA executives, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella and Roland Møller are great rounding out the supporting cast, and Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise from It) makes a fun little cameo.
Onto the fun stuff - the action scenes. These. Are. Incredible. There are car chases, there are covert hits carried out by spies, and then there are full-on, all-out brutal fight scenes where a LOT of people get severely injured. This is where David Leitch makes his mark. If you’ve seen John Wick you’ll know that a prolonged, choreographed long-shot action scene is his thing, with an emphasis on ‘realism’ during a fight. That is, when someone gets injured in a fight, they have to change their fighting style or technique to accommodate for the injury. People also adapt to the fight depending on their surroundings and what they can use as weapons. This might sound like a stupid thing to point out, but there are too many action movies these days where the ‘hero’ is invincible – they never get hurt and can beat up dozens of bad guys without breaking a sweat. Modern action movies also use far too much ‘shaky cam’ to make the action seem more intense than it actually is, trying to confuse the audience into thinking the actor is really a martial arts expert, for example. In Atomic Blonde, when someone gets hit, they stay hit, and people tire like they would in an actual fight, with no close-up trickery and extended shots that have been meticulously choreographed. This makes for some incredibly entertaining and brutal action scenes, including the ‘staircase scene’ in the final act of the film, which is arguably the greatest continuous hand-to-hand combat scene of all time (huge call, I know, but it’s really good, and followed by a great car chase).
Admittedly these scenes won’t be for everyone, because there’s a lot of blood, and Lorraine racks up an impressive body count throughout the movie, but if you can handle this it really is peak action choreography. Leitch has seamlessly laced iconic 1980s songs throughout these action scenes, which adds to their atmosphere and energy. It cannot be understated how well Charlize commands these scenes. She trained alongside Keanu Reeves while he trained for John Wick in order to prepare for the role, with the two often sparring together. As such, she completes most of her own stunts and is completely believable as a deadly female operative.
Fun sidebar: apparently the concept of a John Wick/Atomic Blonde crossover movie has been discussed and is currently being considered. After passing out with excitement, I would be forced to write a 50,000 word review of this movie if it ever gets made.
I haven’t discussed the plot itself in much detail, as it is secondary to the amazing action in my mind, but it’s incredibly entertaining. Easy enough to follow without it being too simplistic, the key question in the movie is: “who is the mole?” Trying to work this out along with the characters, while trying to pinpoint each characters’ motives, makes for a fun watch. The pacing of the movie is spot on, too, with quick jumps between important scenes, and the funky soundtrack filling any dead space.
Not a massive surprise after my gushing review, but I HIGHLY recommend any action fan watch this film. The action scenes are insane, Charlize + action is now must-watch programming and a sequel has already been greenlit by Netflix. All hail David Leitch!
Rating: 8.5/10
Another sidebar after more research: It turns out Leitch is so good at choreographing/directing action movies because he is a career stuntman. Has been a stunt double for Brad Pitt and Claude Van Damme multiple times, and has stunt credits in over 80 films. So he’s basically Brad Pitt’s character from Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but instead of killing his wife and throwing away his career, Leitch has instead turned into one of the most in-demand directors in Hollywood. V cool.