Atomic Blonde Preview

Undercover MI6 Agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is described as an expert in intelligence collection and hand-to-hand combat.  In Atomic Blonde, Broughton is sent alone on a mission to Berlin on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall to take down a ruthless espionage ring that is responsible for killing an undercover agent.  There, she teams up with embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) to navigate her way through a deadly spy game.  

Atomic Blonde is the full length feature film realization of the graphic novel titled The Coldest City.  Written in 2012 by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, The Coldest City chronicles the adventures of a spy sent to find a list of double-agents being smuggled into the West.

At the beginning of the preview, Broughton is briefed on her mission by a top CIA Agent (John Goodman).  She is tasked with finding out who is responsible for killing one of their agents and take down their ring.  Of course, she is told to "trust no one" which should immediately make you distrust Goodman's character right out of the gate.  An early review describes Theron as "bigger and bolder than Bourne".  Many have compared her character to the first real female James Bond.

I can already see a couple problems with those comparisons.  First, the action scenes and driving sequences in the Bourne movies were believable and flawless in their execution.  While Theron looks like she is able to pull off the fighting, the driving looks like it was enhanced by a computer in post production.  And that's just from the preview.

Second, Broughton, like the 007 Agent to which she is compared, has a love interest in the movie.  Bond is known for being quite the ladies' man with not-so-subtle innuendos and a PG to PG-13 scene of intimacy before getting back to the action and gadgets.  Broughton falls for a female French agent named Sandrine (Sofia Boutella).  This love affair was not in the 2012 graphic novel, but the writers of Atomic Blonde felt it would set their spy movie apart from other ones and it would be an unexpected twist.  Their torrid affair looks graphic, intense and gratuitous.   While the Bond scene of love is titillatingly playful, the scenes in Atomic Blonde hinted at by the preview will leave little to the imagination and something that will work against solidifying Broughton as a viable contender to be in the same class as a Bourne or Bond character.

Atomic Blonde looks interesting and I agree we are overdue for a female version of a Bond or Bourne, but I do think they could have done so with more attention to the plot and the action and less on the nudity and sex that seems to be just as big a part of the movie.  I'm not going in with huge expectations and am giving a timid 2 Star Prediction.  I think this would be one to wait for it to be on your pay cable channels, but might not even be worth renting, let alone spending the big bucks to watch in theatres.  Am I right?  We shall see.