Yesterday was the Indian release of Atomic Blonde, I was totally excited after watching the trailer. Its almost a month later than its initial release which is quite sad. Even after seeing its IMDB ratings which is 7/10, i went for it. I am a huge fan of Charlize Theron, thats probably the only reason that made me go to this film. I think I had my expectations high on this one, but sadly the film under performed.
Review:
Its an action packed film with the usual spy film plot twists and betrayals. Lets say it was quite entertaining to watch this film, because of the well choreographed action and fight scenes, but most important the story line was too weak. It goes something like this, a bad ass spy is appointed to kill another spy who has betrayed the agency. It turns out to be that she has been framed into a bigger plan and the usual shit happens when she fights back and saves her self from the bad guys.
I like watching good movies. Good movies teach us how to make a good film, whereas bad movies teach us how not to make a good film. There are like a few things I liked after watching this film like the fight scenes, especially the single shot stairway fight. That was really impressive. I also liked the color schemes which reminded me of the recent Ghost in the Shell movie. Very pleasing to the eyes.
As long as the story goes, there's nothing new here. The story can be predicted easily and at times you'll feel like "what is going on here?", Things start to happen without any reason, I think the reason is there was no strong premise that was set. The movie starts of somewhere in the middle. You don't know who these characters are. You are made to catch up with the character and when you finally try to make sense of the story it will be too late. It's like Kill Bill crossed with James Bond.
The performance of Charlize Theron is not that great compared to her other recent films. The ice bath and smoking cigarettes looked good on camera. After, seeing the fight scenes I thought "Why didn't she auditioned for Wonder Woman?" No, I loved Gal Gadot... But, why not?
It was evident that films like these are made for its action and fights scenes, where as less attention is payed towards the story or the content part. We can see great amount of technical detailing in each and every shot. Every shot looked like a painting and were very well composed, the lighting and the colors were fantastic. Most of the films these days have this same problem. A recent Bollywood film Jab Harry Met Sejal also had the same problem, they did every thing perfectly, but there was no content.
The director David Leitch who also made the first John Wick movie has a good taste for stunts, with the background in stunt coordinating its easy to say what Leitch saw in the film that others didn't. Well its his second film and lets hope he gets better. Because, Deadpool 2 is also getting directed by him. Huge deal isn't it...
Conclusion:
If you are someone who wants to kill time this weekend with your friends then this is the movie you can go to. And Charlize Theron kicking some bad guys is not a bad deal.