Atomic Blonde Review

Well that was disappointing. I went into Atomic Blonde looking forward to an ass kicking good time and instead I got a movie that had all its ass kicking shown in the trailers and a spy story that I didn't care about.

Atomic Blonde takes place in 1989 right around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and tells the story of a MI6 spy named Lorraine Broughton, played by Charlize Theron. With the help of David Percival (James McAvoy) and Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), Lorraine must find a list of names that was lost when fellow spy is killed.

There were a couple of things that I did like about Atomic Blonde. The first, and most obvious, was Charlize Theron and her fight scenes. Charlize totally kicks ass as Lorraine. When it came to her fight scenes, I liked that they showed she was vulnerable. In a lot of action movies today, the hero will get into these brutal fights and walk away like they were invincible. In Atomic Blonde, Lorraine gets bruised and bloody and near the end of fights is out of breathe and barely standing. I also enjoyed how the fight scenes were shot. The camera was close to the action and I never felt lost about what was going on and where the punches were landing.

Another aspect I liked about Atomic Blonde was the way certain scenes looked. Actually, they weren't really scenes, but more like one shots. These one shots would consist of Charlize mainly just sitting in a chair in her hotel room. I loved the way these shots were framed with her in the center and the lighting around her. In fact, I actually enjoyed these moments more than when she was fighting and kicking someones ass.

The big negative for me with Atomic Blonde was the story. I found the journey to be uninteresting. I was never on the edge of my seat wondering who was this mystery person Lorraine was looking for and if she would ever find him/her. I was expecting non-stop action and instead they tried to give me a spy thriller that didn't add anything new to the genre. I found myself often wanting the story to hurry up and move on to the next action scene. Unfortunately, when it did move on to the next action scene, it was a scene that I saw in the trailer, only just extended by a tiny bit.

Atomic Blonde provided solid action scenes with Charlize Theron, unfortunately, if you have seen the trailers, you have seen all the action. The story is below average and never keeps you engaged in the movie. If you are interested in Atomic Blonde, see it at a matinee price or wait until you can rent it or it's on Netflix/Amazon Prime.

2 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Weekend Expectations: Jan 27-29

This weekend there are no major releases that I am interested in seeing. I haven't watched a Resident Evil movie since the second one, the controversy behind A Dog's Purpose will keep me from seeing it and Gold just doesn't look good. Because there is nothing new to see, I will be catching up on two movies that were released last weekend, Split and xXx: Return of Xander Cage.

Split: This is the latest release from M. Night Shyamalan. Lately Shyamalan has not made very good movies, in fact I haven't seen one of his movies since Lady in the Water in 2006. I really enjoyed his earlier work, especially Signs. So far I've heard that Split is good to very good and that the twist at the end is incredible. Those two things alone have me excited to see Split. I am also looking forward to James McAvoy's performance. In the trailers he looks absolutely stunning. I am also looking forward to seeing Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) and Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen).

xXx: Return of Xander Cage: My expectations for this one are extremely low. The only reason I am going to see this is for its mindless action sequence. I don't remember anything that happened in the previous two xXx movies but I have feeling that won't affect what happens in this movie. The one thing I actually am looking forward to is seeing Donnie Yen in another movie. He was one of my favorite parts of Rogue One. I am basically going into this movie expecting to laugh at how ridiculous the action is.