Atomic Blonde

More of a high-end MOAB, actually.

+: action scenes unimpeachable, story compelling (if not exactly original)

-: maybe leans on style too much

Atomic Blonde came and went in August, proving a moderate late-summer success (albeit one set in cold, late autumn), but it’s worth a revisit. Comparisons thrown about at the time include Jason Bourne and John Wick, but really the story is a one-woman Mission: Impossible (1996), right down to the storyline about recovering a missing NOC list (there’s always a single, giant list for some reason). This isn’t to imply 12A-rated clockwork theatrics, though: Atomic Blonde is a grubby fight from start to finish, as even its protagonist acknowledges.

Speaking of fights, the whole film almost functions as a basic guide to action movie fights: there’s the fight in a car, there’s the fight with improvised weaponry in an apartment, there’s the fight silhouetted against a movie/theatre screen, there’s the gunfight-car chase, and it would’ve been hideously remiss of the film if it had forgotten the brutal, suddenly-quite-real fight in which the heroes are in actual, genuine danger. Sure, all action films have them to some degree — there’s always a point, at least once per film, where the main henchman practically has James Bond’s balls in a vice — but this film is the sort of film that commits utterly, and so, yes, it all gets a bit Jason Bourne, shakeycam and all, in the middle of Mission: Impossible.

There’s no questioning any of it whilst it happens. Charlize Theron has little to prove in terms of action credentials, although she goes ahead and proves it anyway. James McAvoy immediately telegraphs what a giant prick his character is, and remains impressively committed start to end. John Goodman John Goodmans whenever the possibility arises. Sofia Boutella’s also pretty great, and more vulnerable and varied than her usual kind of role. Of course, everyone’s largely playing an archetype, which makes it all punch a bit harder.

Outside the moment, however, there are some questionable aspects. The ending twists and twists again, and whilst it produces one final action scene that’s more than worthwhile, it doesn’t really have any point plotwise. There’s the slight sense that — given how this was adapted from the somewhat obscure graphic novel The Coldest City — the plot was in the can early on, giving more time to commit to the fluorescent neon against concrete aesthetics, period details and soundtrack choices, not to mention male-gaze-y shots of Boutella (not, for this reviewer, a huge complaint, but still). At the end of the film, a familiar bassline kicks in, and for a moment, there’s the sense that maybe, after multiple renditions of “99 Luftballons” and “Blue Monday”, the film will actually dare to risk seeming uncool and going for the idiosyncratic choice. Does Vanilla Ice happen? No. It’s “Under Pressure”. Of course it is. As surely as the Berlin Wall fell.

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