Atomic Blonde

Atomic Blonde

Starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, John Goodman

Directed by David Leitch

The Story:
In the waning days of the Berlin Wall, MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is sent to Germany to find files known as "the list" that contains the names of all the undercover operatives that has been stolen by the KGB.  While there, she meets contact British agent David Percival (James McAvoy) and French agent Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), and works with them to get the list back - albeit in vastly different ways.

It seems as soon as she sets foot in Berlin, her cover gets blown and she comes into contact with several agents out to kill her, and she must also protect a man called Sunglass (Eddie Marsan) who had stolen the list but lost it, yet committed it to memory.  Lorraine finds out that someone is a double agent, and learns she can't trust anyone while she searches for the list.

The Synopsis:
There's a few female action heroes out there today, one of them being Charlize Theron.  She's shown herself to be a versatile actress and also has the physicality to achieve the seemingly impossible, especially in films like "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Aeon Flux."  With "Atomic Blonde," casting Theron was a no-brainer, because there's not another female actress around who could mix Theron's vulnerability with her verisimilitude to be cold as steel and get the job accomplished at any cost.

Here, she plays a MI6 agent who is telling the story of what happened in Berlin, thanks to flashbacks, and her search for the list.  The film does some great cinematography by shooting entirely with silver-grey camera filters that gives the film a gritty edge, along with including an amazing soundtrack of 80s music (since the film takes place in 1989, they really know how to use the music to infuse the scenes).  However, all of that could've been window dressing if the lead was uninteresting or unbelievable, but Theron is anything but that.  She struts with a confidence that exudes her very essence, and has the tactical know-how to back it up.  We don't learn a lot about her past, and that's to the praise of the film: sometimes we don't want to know someone's entire back story, because it's not necessary for the plot.  The film jumps right in with the action, and it's a thrill ride all the way through.

Speaking of the action, they're tightly filmed, exciting, and absolutely insane.  It's the main selling point of the film, as the plot seems to revolve around Theron's next gang of thugs she has to beat up, and we wait with baited breath for that next epic scene.  Either fighting in a moving car (which, if the overpass looks familiar, it was the same one used during the Black Panther chase scene in "Captain America: Civil War"), a movie theater, an apartment or a staircase (which is actually the best sequence of the bunch), we're gifted with Theron's versatility and solidifies herself as one of the biggest action heroines today.

The story seems simple enough: get a list of agent names before it falls into the wrong hands.  Yet, it's much more complex than that, as agents are being murdered and there seems to be a double agent on the payroll.  Lorraine is told before leaving to not trust anyone, and therefore we don't trust them either.  We're watching all their moves to see if we can identify the double agent, and it's absolutely exciting.  Is it James McAvoy's debonair British agent?  Or Sofia Boutella's mild-mannered, seemingly innocent French agent?  Or could it be Lorraine herself?  Or someone entirely different?  It's a great mystery that builds from start to finish, and will have you wanting to watch the film again to catch all the small things you missed.

While watching the film, I couldn't help but connect it to another action blockbuster - "John Wick."  I thought to myself that seeing the two coming into contact with one another in a crossover film would be epic, and after leaving the theater I looked up some facts about the movie and realized why I made the connection.  The director - David Leitch - was also a co-director for the first "John Wick" (and explains the stylized fighting sequences), and Theron even trained with Keanu Reeves who was also working on "John Wick: Chapter 2."  I'm having high hopes of seeing "Atomic Wick" sometime in the near future.  I know the timelines are completely off, and Theron would've aged almost thirty years, but that didn't stop "X-Men: Apocalypse."

The Summary:
"Atomic Blonde" is the quintessential summer action film that includes over-the-top fighting, a compelling story, stylistic visuals, a great soundtrack, and most importantly the incomparable lead Charlize Theron.

The Score: A