Charlize Theron outshines the rest of Atomic Blonde

Oscar-winner Theron stars as ruthlessly efficient MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton, a platinum blonde with an impressive set of skills tasked with investigating the murder of an agent in Berlin.

Action and intrigue abound in hyperstylized spy thriller “Atomic Blonde”, which takes the former quite seriously, boasting some of the best fight choreography on screen in years and a vehicle chase worthy of comparison to “Baby Driver”. Kurt Johnstad’s script, adapted from The Coldest City graphic novel series, develops side characters seemingly at random.

But it’s the Bond and Bourne films from which Leitch and screenwriter Kurt Johnstad borrow most heavily; there’s an escape which is lifted from the opening sequence of The World Is Not Enough, and a line of dialogue that that is nearly verbatim what Dominic Greene tells Bond in A Quantum of Solace about the propensity of those around him to, well, die. For the spies of Atomic Blonde, the objective of chasing a MacGuffin called “The List” has been vastly diminished by world events, but they keep on fighting regardless.

Less importantly, while the film mostly effectively uses 1980s pop-rock – “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie really lifts a scene – it sometimes just can’t help itself from being insanely on the nose.

People don’t usually move very fast in Cold War thrillers. “I hope it will be entertaining, some full elements to it”. “If it’s not, then you should skip An Inconvenient Sequel“.

It’s easy to see that Leitch is aiming for a more acrobatic version of the famous corridor scene from Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy”. Any energy you might have invested in this ugly world filled with shallow characters has been squandered on silly spy plots and shoddy storytelling.

And violent. insane violent.

This is the recipe for the quite ridiculous, ultra-violent and deliriously entertaining “Atomic Blonde”, a slick vehicle for the magnetic, badass charms of Charlize Theron, who is now officially an A-list action star on the strength of this film and “Mad Max: Fury Road”. “It does rely on the actor’s ability when you don’t have the money for CGI spectacle”.

Wait a minute – let’s attempt some cultural clout by having her engage in a lacklustre fight against the backdrop of a Tarkovsky film.

She can demolish a veritable army of goons wielding automatic weapons and switchblade knives by punching and kicking them into oblivion. Theron and Reeves collaborated together in 1997 for “The Devil’s Advocate”. Despite the training, though, she left the “Atomic” production in need of dental work. Seeing her single handedly take on her enemies in realistic-looking fight scenes makes this movie all the more interesting and promising.

The 71/2-minute sequence does, of course, have some hidden cuts and digital assists in it, but Theron and the men did the whole unforgiving ballet repeatedly over four days of shooting.

The co-branded campaign will see the Stoli feature prominently in the movie, bolstered by a multimedia campaign running through August that encapsulates activity on TV, out of home, print, digital ads and social media. Much of this is to the credit of cinematographer Jonathan Sela, who also worked on John Wick in addition to Law Abiding Citizen. A brawl in a movie theater and a stairwell fight are two of the film’s biggest highlights. “So that sequence was all hands on deck, all departments”. “I survived that, and I’m proud of that”, Theron tells The New York Times. Which proves that when we’re talking sexy spy thrillers, style is most of the battle. But Leitch’s disinterest in storytelling clearly shows in the film’s lazy narrative. “There’s fantasy-fulfillment in Charlize’s character in a lot of ways, for men and women”. We’re starting that conversation right now. This distance adds to her mystery and it also makes the eruptions of violence more electric. She’s terrific. The aforementioned action set piece, created to appear as one take, is positively breathtaking. This is because decades of movie tropes have conditioned us to reflexively read such imagery as visual shortcuts for “victim to be felt bad for” rather than “total bad-ass who just won a huge fight”. Our heroine takes A LOT of punishment amidst dishing her own.