Atomic Blonde (2017)

Actually saw it. It was okay. The action sequences were very good and got better as the movie went on, but a lot of the artistic direction and stuff was just.. meh. It was too "GRAPHIC NOVEL TO MOOOOOVIIEIEEEE". Plot was fine, Charlize was naked like 4 times, action was good but the trailers implied a lot more, but overall I'd give it a 7.5 or something. Good enough to see, not good enough to buy or watch again.

Acting was good and the fight scenes were great. Rest of the movie was kind of boring. I'm not familiar with the source material but the movie was paced awkwardly and I didn't really care about any of the characters. There wasn't as much ass kicking as I was hoping for though and not nearly as much as the trailer made it seem there would be.

Saw this today, thought it wasn't that bad. It's no John Wick but the fight scenes felt pretty good and it wasn't a terrible story, just a textbook period spy vs spy film. Soundtrack was appropriate and I liked that they kept it pretty diverse... it would have been easy to focus on some easily recognizable late 80's tunes but they didn't. Give it a solid 7 or 7.5. Enjoyable as long as you are capable of letting yourself go for the ride.

Good for Charlize character
Great for the action scenes (the fight in tne stairs is so awesome)
Great for the lesbo stuff

Bad for some poor direction and editing
Bad for the pace of the movie and kinda convoluted in the end.

6/10
Soundtrack was also good....ahhh the 80's

ohkcrlho said:

Good for Charlize character
Great for the action scenes (the fight in tne stairs is so awesome)
Great for the lesbo stuff

Bad for some poor direction and editing
Bad for the pace of the movie and kinda convoluted in the end.

6/10
Soundtrack was also good....ahhh the 80's

Click to expand...

nailed it

This was a pretty solid period late 80s spy vs spy film. Charlize did a fine job with the action stuff and did a competent job with a cold war spy vs spy bond like action film.

As for being convoluted I mostly figured where the movie was going pretty early and it made sense. But again pretty standard cold war spy vs spy stuff if you like that kind of movie this should be up your alley.

Writing and story sucked balls, the immersion of 1989 Berlin in the cold war and the music was absolutely fantastic though. Great visuals and atmosphere.

Nudity was kinda off putting honestly (and I fucking love Theron), Theron looked beat up to shit and her relationship with the french chick made no sense at all. Again, just a lot of really bad writing. As someone said above, didn't really give a shit about any of the characters and most of the twists were obvious 30 minutes ahead. The action scenes were good but I really don't like seeing chicks beat the fuck up so ... yeah.

worth a watch at home I guess but don't expect anything close to John Wick tier, this is definitely NOT female John Wick. I thought Man from UNCLE was a far better cold war spy movie.

A bit frustrating, because you can feel that with all these thematic and stylistic elements, with this narrative device (the main character is the storyteller), with these characters and the initial situation even, a much better movie could have been made. Still, there are several good scenes here and there and it's a reasonably entertaining watch, but... yeah... it missed the bullseye by too significant a margin.

A podcast I listen to recently covered this movie and many of the points they made had me rewatch the movie. And I gotta say, I enjoyed it a lot more on the second watch. Specifically, the twist at the end (no spoilers) makes the movie a lot different when you rewatch it, you actually notice a lot of tiny little things that make you go "ahhh... ok, that makes a lot more sense now". The podcast also mentioned how Lorraine (Theron's character) gets beat the fuck up by the men she fights, but she is able to kick ass when she can get ahold of tools that turn into weapons, which is realistic and interesting.

Anyways enjoyed it a lot more on a second watch, although I am kind of torn on whether a movie really should need 2 watches to fully appreciate it. A lot of the spy stuff is super, super convoluted on first watch but makes a lot more sense on second watch. There are still two major flaws with the basic premise of the story that kinda drag it down, but I guess you just gotta write it off as movie logic. The atmosphere and music though are pure magic, and I wish James Bond would return to 70s and 80s cold war era.

the two big flaws