a5c7b9f00b An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents. Just after the fall of Berlin's wall in 1989, MI6 secret agent, Lorraine Broughton, is sent to Cold War Germany to meet her contact, station chief David Percival, after the murder of a fellow undercover agent. With the intention to recover an invaluable microfilm containing a list of the names of every British spy, Lorraine must battle with waves of KGB agents and lethal henchmen in the bowels of a city at boiling point. Under those circumstances, as both sides want the list desperately, whom can Lorraine trust? After dazzling everyone with his debut feature, which he co-directed with Chad Stahelski, director David Leitch tries to prove his mettle with his solo directorial effort but unlike Stahelski's solo feat that was John Wick: Chapter 2, his film falls a little short. There are few things that Atomic Blonde gets right but it isn't sturdy enough to hold itself together.<br/><br/>Set in Germany just before the fall of Berlin Wall, the story of Atomic Blonde follows a top-level MI6 field agent who's sent to Berlin to investigate the murder of a fellow undercover agent and retrieve an all-important list that would expose every intelligence agent active on both sides of the wall but in order to deliver the package safely across the wall, she has to bring all her skill-set into play.<br/><br/>Directed by David Leitch, the film finds him in prime form when he's staging an action sequence but whenever it returns to plot & character development, it's unable to sustain that same level of intensity. The narrative is weak, the non-linear arrangement is incoherent, subplots are poorly scripted, twists are predictable & it lacks a smooth flow when switching from one scene to another.<br/><br/>The Cold War era and the feeling of unrest that comes associated with it is expertly captured and well-sustained by its overcast ambiance & apt use of cold colour tones. Camera-work is kinetic and makes excellent use of close-ups, long takes & neon lighting to add more flavours to its images. Editing is all over the place though, for the plot is muddled, narrative flow is inconsistent & pacing is tedious.<br/><br/>Coming to the performances, leading from the front is Charlize Theron in a swashbuckling display of swag, sultriness & solidity, and she captures her character's cold & charismatic demeanour with raw intensity. James McAvoy's character carries an enigmatic quality and the actor does justice to his role. And the two are finely supported by John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, Bill Skarsgård & Toby Jones.<br/><br/>On an overall scale, Atomic Blonde is a stylishly directed action spy thriller but the blandness in the storytelling section fails to set it apart from its genre's norms. The action is brutal, thrilling & highly engaging, and I love the fact that those hand-to-hand combat scenes are illustrated as physically exhausting, which is what they are in real-life. In short, Atomic Blonde rides on Theron's badass input and entertains in bits n pieces but the interest always fizzles out when she isn't beating men to a pulp. Agent goes to Berlin to retrieve the body of a fallen partner only to get more than she bargained for.<br/><br/>Packed with double cross and John Wick-style action, David Leitch Atomic Blonde is weak in comparison, it was a promising 80s set Cold War espionage female driven film in the vein of Salt but it's a case of style over substance, a waste of good actors including Charlize Theron channelling Blondie (Debora Harry) as undercover MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton with a shoe horned soundtrack of the period. <br/><br/>It was sold to be a gender-less lead, you could have put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role in press interviews but nothing was further from the truth, with it focusing female exploitation from the start. Wasted of all round talent including Leitch in a forgettable messy film. It's no rival for le Carré when it comes to the old cross/double-cross stuff; but a surfeit of style and a tasty supporting turn by James McAvoy help fill the time between fight scenes, which — this being a film by the stuntman/codirector behind John Wick — are pretty much the whole point.
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