That is pretty much what you get.
However, it is only in terms of the action choreography and cinematography. The rest of it is something closer to modern James Bond, Jason Bourne or Mission: Impossible. What all of that ends up being is a fun spy action thriller with some of the best fight and car chase sequences you'll see this year.
There are two great performances to speak of. Charlize Theron continues to be for me the best physical female actor ever. Seeing her in Mad Max: Fury Road reminded how good she is, and Atomic Blonde cemented my views on how well she sells the action and how dedicated she is in the training that is required.
James McAvoy's gave the film a welcomed edge to it with a very well done unhinged performance that seems to become his wheelhouse for top roles.
It is always great to see Sofia Boutella. She is most certainly an female action star in the making. But her role seemed to be more dialogue based rather than physical. I thought she did a solid job and that for me bodes well for her future where I hope to see her take the leading role.
Despite not having much screen time, Toby Jones and John Goodman were great in their minor roles. One final actor I wanted to mention was Til Schweiger. He might not have been given much to do. But it was just great to see him on screen again. Most people will probably know him for playing Hugo Stiglitz in Inglourious Basterds.
Many of the fight scenes were brutal to watch and could certainly give the John Wick action scenes a run for their money. There is one stand-out scene that is one long take that is worth the admission ticket alone. Props to all involved as that looked tricky to execute.
Now to its problems, and thankfully none of them are major ones. While on the whole I really liked the soundtrack, it did feel over-used at times. It fitted the period well for the most part. But there were moments that just felt like music for the sake of it and it did not mesh well with some of the scenes.
Another few minor gripes I had was the story, character development and the ending. There were scenes in the final act that felt rushed and the over convoluted plot had me struggling to fit everything into place. The frenetic pace did not help either. I think maybe a better editor could be the first solution that comes to mind.
Despite all of that preventing me from calling this a great film, I still had a fun time. With David Leitch directing this, we seem to be entering a promising new age for action films. It seems directors like Leitch with a heavy amount of stunt work in their back catalogue is the way forward to give us the action we deserve.
While John Wick had the same great action, it also had a intriguing mythology within its world. As for Atomic Blonde, there is little outside of the action. The story is something we've seen before, and the complexities were never fulfilled.
That being said, maybe it just needs a few re-watches to fully get the plot. But on a first viewing, the action did more than enough to have be gripped as well as good performances and beautiful and stylish imagery.
Rating: 7/10
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