Atomic Blonde

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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From David Leitch, in the tradition of  “La Femme Nikita” and the director’s previous  hit “John Wick,” “Atomic Blonde” (based on the graphic novel The Coldest City  by Anthony Johnston and Sam Hart), stars Charlize Theron as a savage MI6 agent. Although the plot is formulaic, the satisfying action scenes are many and the film to its credit, actually looks like a graphic novel.  

Lorraine (Theron) is sent to Berlin before the fall of the Wall to recover a strip of microfilm. She has Agent Percival (James McAvoy)  on her trail as well as many other  bruised brutes, but with her fist and a murderous red stiletto heel, she is not to be confronted.

 Lorraine strikes first and asks questions later.

The action is entertaining, bursting across the screen in fluidity very much like a glossy magazine. The sequences are very much like a choreographed ballet of smashes, bashes and crashes as each man is taken, quite literally, to within inches of life.

But when the dust clears, the double crosses get a bit confusing as Lorraine is taken to the boss (Toby Jones) for endless questions. In a gray room with a silent John Goodman, the action slows down a bit.

The story is greatly helped however by its authentic setting, some glossy cinematography and stirring music from the 1980s, featuring David Bowie and New Order. 

If that doesn’t get you, there is a sex scene between Charlize Theron and Sofia Boutella that resembles a murder.

The film works better with its percussive action than its explanations. Jones and Goodman state things about this KGB agent and that MI6 man, but it really doesn’t matter. The real events occur when Lorraine emerges from a tub brimming with ice cubes, her muscular back flexing like a creature from an extraterrestrial sea: Alien’s cousin. 

With every designer outfit, accompanied by thigh high boots, Lorraine is ready for her often messy work.

“Atomic Blonde” also has some gallows humor. As man after man comes after our spy, she grows bloody and injured, yet she still carries on. She is a kind of reverse Wonder Woman. If you really want a man dispensed with, ask for Lorraine. 

Although somewhat derivative “Atomic Blonde” is watchable for the charisma of Charlize Theron. Who else can emerge swollen, black, blue and bloody with several punctures, only to attend a premiere party in West Berlin the next evening?

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com