Atomic Blonde (2017)

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Xevy

Log Wizard
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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.
 
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Khane

Got something right about marriage
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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.
 
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Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
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I noticed a distinct lack of the song Atomic by Blondie in any of these trailers, in spite of the film's name and most of the trailers having similar period music in it. Fortunately, after googling the film's soundtrack listing I saw that they do, actually, have that song in the film somewhere. Jimmies saved from being rustled!
 
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Ladro

Anomaly
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547
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.
 

ohkcrlho

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,906
8,940
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
 
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Campbell1oo4

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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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

nailed it
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
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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.
 

spronk

FPS noob
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25,385
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.
 
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Szlia

Member
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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.
 
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spronk

FPS noob
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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
it makes no sense for some random stasi officer to build a list of all agents for all governments. you would always exclude your own "side" from any such list, not to mention how the fuck would anyone get access to all of that.

it makes no sense that an American enrolls into the CIA at a young age, trains up to be a spy, and then somehow repeats the whole thing with MI6 now with a british accent, while keeping her american allegiance. Fucking McDonalds runs deeper background checks than MI6 in this world I guess.
 
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TBT-TheBigToe

Gemcutter
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This is one of those movies that comes off as being worse than it is because it should be much better.

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.

This kind of thing ruins a few/movies and shows for me, the flaws outweigh the good because the flaws shouldn’t really be there.

I couldn’t get into this and just turned it off to put something else on while I ipadded, maybe I will give it another go if I don’t forget it exists... again.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
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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.

"Realistic" is a bit of a stretch, but at least they made a small effort to acknowledge that a 120 lb woman can't just beat the shit out of 3 250 lb guys at once no matter how many karate classes they took. It's still very far from realistic, but it's one step closer than some of these killer chick movies.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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It was a great idea with a lot of filler to get to the payoff. McAvoy made this movie work. As for watching the movie twice to "get it", I think it was fine on one viewing. Other movies have had this sort of thing, but done it better (No Way Out, Fight Club, Memento). Given the budget, I think it was a descent movie but not something I would go out of my way to rewatch.
 
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