Numbers obtained from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on August 7, 2017.
My rating IMDb Rotten Tomatoes
Critics Audience Critics Audience
7/10 63/100 7.1/10 76% 68%
If you are a James Bond fan, you probably know that even when there is nothing new going on with the franchise, it still makes headlines almost daily. Most recently, the main debate has been focusing on whether or not Daniel Craig will return and, if he doesn’t, should the next James Bond be a woman?
For that reason, every time a new spy-movie is released, the cast is inevitably asked about James Bond, or even compared to it. That’s what happened with Charlize Theron while promoting Atomic Blonde: she had to answer, multiple times, if she would be interesting in creating a female version of the famous British spy.
Having watched the film, I couldn’t help but wonder: why are they asking her that if that’s basically what this movie did? To explain: she plays Lorraine Broughton, a spy from MI-6 who not only knows how to fight and kill the enemy, but also enjoys partying and drinking, while wearing gorgeous outfits. Does it ring any bells?
Set in Berlin in 1989, Lorraine has to find a stolen list containing the names of undercover agents before their names are released and their lives are in danger (similar to the main plot of Skyfall). In order to achieve that goal, she gets the help of David Percival (James McAvoy), an arrogant agent who knows everyone in Berlin.
The premise sounded interesting, but the execution was a bit disappointing. Much focus was put into the neon lights that are all over the city and not much attention was paid to the script itself. The soundtrack is filled with great songs from the 1980s and the fight sequences are extremely well choreographed, but there are so many plot twists that the audience ends up losing track of who betrayed whom.
Maybe that’s precisely the weakest point in the movie: it wants so badly to surprise the audience with twists and turns that, by the time it ends, the twists were already expected, losing the element of surprise.
All in all, it was good to see that a female spy movie is possible without having to just change “James” to “Jane” Bond.
