Atomic Blonde (2017)

'Atomic Blonde' comes from the director of 'John Wick' and stars Charlize Theron as a British MI6 agent who arrives in Berlin at the dawn of the 1989 fall in order to retrieve a vital list of agents that could lead to disaster. With the film being from the creators of 'John Wick', one would likely guess that this film follows a similar pattern but it takes a different direction for both better and for worse. While stylish and colorful like Wick, 'Atomic Blonde' is a spy thriller like a 007 flick with many twists and turns, backstabs, and constant jumps between alliances. It can honestly all be a smack to the face with how quickly the film goes through all this large amount of information and it ultimately keeps 'Atomic Blonde' from getting a little higher up that pedestal.

The story goes all over the place, jumping between past, present, and even in the future towards the end. It's all a little hard to take in so much information especially with all of the stylish fight sequences, glamorous sets, and awesome 80's soundtrack. Despite all the glamor, a lot of 'Atomic Blonde' feels hollow such as the writing. Theron is a wonderful actress and here she does her usual best, but you learn little to nothing significant about the character other than pieces here and there just to further the plot slightly. You really wish you knew more about her so you could care about her more, even when she loses people she cares for she seems to just brush it off in the next scene despite looking crushed and defeated in the previous. The character we get to learn about the most is James McAvoy's, a British agent stationed in Berlin and he is by far the only fleshed out and fully developed character in the whole thing which is not a good thing.

The film's story of the list is seemingly secondary to the elaborate fight scenes which are impressive and just as well done as one would expect but without anything of substance, it feels a little pointless at times. 'Atomic Blonde' is not terrible by any means but I expected something better from these filmmakers and cast. I expected something a little more polished given the clear talent behind it and while the film itself provides plenty of popcorn entertainment, it's likely to fall behind in the coming weeks and quickly forgotten.

C+