Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/866589
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 AUGUST 2017 38 This Week 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road brought about a couple of realisa- tions - George Miller was still able to direct one of the finest action films of the decade, and South Af- rican actress Charlize Theron has what it takes to be an action star. Someone in Hollywood clearly came to this same conclusion, and three years after Mad Max's return to the big screen we get Atomic Blonde, where Theron takes the spotlight as a superspy protagonist that's parts James Bond and Jason Bourne, only with even more ca- pability in the men breaking de- partment. After all, neither Bond nor Bourne is forced to do their job while clad in thigh-high boots and stiletto heels... Based on The Coldest City, a 2012 comic series by scribe An- tony Johnston and artist Sam Hart, Atomic Blonde is nominally an espionage thriller set in the year 1989, on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. MI6 Lorraine Broughton is sent to Berlin on a mission to recover a MacGuffin dubbed the List, a list (obviously!) of all the active field agents from all sides of the Cold War working in the city. The search gets her in contact with shifty British spy Da- vid Percival (James McAvoy), who in turn is in touch with "Spyglass," (Eddie Marsan), a Stasi turncoat who claims to have memorised the entire List. Also involved is a pre- dictably sizeable number of Rus- sian toughs, as well as Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), a French spy on a first field assignment with a major crush on Lorraine - a crush that actually gets requited, big time. While the above plot synopsis makes Atomic Blonde sounds like standard genre fare with a period setting, Atomic Blonde promises something different in the shape of its director - David Leitch, who was one half of duo behind mod- ern action classic John Wick. An- other connection is cinematogra- pher Jonathan Sela, whose vision of 1989 Berlin is similarly awash in red and violet neons. As such, the trailers and promotional materials promised the film was going to be nothing less than gender-bent ver- sion of Keanu Reeves' sleeper hit. Does it manage to satisfy such lofty expectations? In action terms, not entirely, this is ultimately not the case. While Atomic Blonde drips with style, its choreography does not impress as much as it could have (even as it stands out from most of the superhero-based pab- ulum Hollywood pushes as action cinema), even more so consider- ing how good Charlize Theron is throughout. A particularly disap- pointing scene has a fight set in front of a projection of Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker - a potentially amazing sequence, only one cut way too short. An exception to this state of ac- tion affairs comes around the half- way mark. An attempt to squirrel Spyglass to safety goes awry, forc- ing Lorraine to fight her way down a building's stairway through a handful of Russian agents. This might not sound like much, the action here could belong to an- other film - gone is the neon and stylisation, replaced with a cold, unadorned aesthetic that is almost cinéma vérité. This culminates with a (faux) 10-minute single take where the camera restlessly follows Lorraine as she punches, kicks, stabs and shoots her way through her assailants. The fight- ing is sharp and brutal, and while the genre dictates the protagonist emerges victorious, Theron's per- formance is such to convince that this might not be case, as her Lor- raine takes a more than a fair share of brutality. This is standout action cinema, and a sequence that will be spoken about for years to come. The rest of the film can also be described in the terms used for the stairway-based action - it's decent enough, if nothing worth writing much about. The espio- nage plot is ultimately muddled to the point of being uninteresting, while the sexual politics are po- tentially iffy (is Lorraine's relation- ship with Delphine a win for the representation of bisexuality on the big screen or mere titillation? The answer might light in just how much time Theron spends clad in little more than lingerie and fish- net stockings). Then there's the matter of the soundtrack, which takes the currently popular ap- proach of sticking 1980s music tracks at every possible excuse. 99 Luftballoons pops up not once, but twice, Lorraine is introduced to the tune of David Bowie's Cat People, the secret police appear just as Falco's Der Kommissar is playing. At times the effect reaches Suicide Squad levels of obnoxious- ness, making this reviewer wish the production took some time to research the actual German pop that would have been playing West Berlin nightclub… which probably would not have been Eurythmics. Ultimately, Atomic Blonde trips in its attempts to shoehorn the John le Carré-style plotting of the source material in an action mould that in turn is attempting to be both Bourne and Wick. It ultimately still is a very watchable genre fluff, but one hopes it gets a better sequel, if only for more of the glorious sight that is Theron savagely breaking men. Now that is truly what sweet dreams are made of. IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 The Hitman's Bodyguard (15) 10:35, 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10 Dunkirk (12A) 13:45, 16:05, 18:25, 20:45 The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (U) 10:00, 12:00, 13:55 Annabelle: Creation (15) 16:00, 18:20, 20:45 Everything, Everything (12A) 10:00, 12:15, 14:30, 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Atomic Blonde (15) 13:55, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15 The Emoji Movie (U) 10:00, 12:10, 14:20, 16:30, 18:40, 20:50 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Fireman Sam: Alien Alert! The Movie (U) 11:00, 12:30 Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (U) 11:05, 14:05, 16:05 Spider-Man: Homecoming (PG) 11:15, 14:30, 18:00, 20:45, 23:30 The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (U) 11:25, 14:15, 16:20, 18:25, 20:35 Everything, Everything (12A) 11:30, 14:05, 14:10, 16:15, 18:15, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 The Emoji Movie: Express Yourself (U) 11:30, 16:10 Bob the Builder: Mega Machines (U) 11:30 The Hitman's Bodyguard (15) 13:20, 15:55, 18:25, 21:00 Annabelle: Creation 15 13:50, 16:10, 18:35, 21:00, 22:40 Atomic Blonde (15) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:45 Dunkirk (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:05, 23:35 Williams (TBA) 14:00, 18:25 Despicable Me 3 (U) 14:10, 16:15, 18:25 47 Metres Down (15) 14:15, 16:15, 18:30, 20:40 Rough Night (15) 14:20, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:30 City of Ghosts (18) 16:20, 20:50 Girls Trip (15) 18:15, 20:50 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (12A) 20:20, 23:10 Baby Driver (15) 20:35 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Rough Night (15) 11:15, 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00 Everything, Everything (12A) 11:15, 14:00, 16:30, 18:40, 20:50 The Emoji Movie (U) 11:15, 14:00, 16:30, 18:40, 20:45 The Hitman's Bodyguard (15) 11:10, 13:45, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15 Annabelle: Creation (15) 11:15, 14:00, 16:15, 18:30, 20:45 Dunkirk (12A) 16:20, 21:00 The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (U) 11:15, 14:00, 18:40 Atomic Blonde (15) 11:10, 13:45, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15 By Marco Attard ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ JUST LIKE HEAVEN ★ ★ ★ ★ PERSONAL JESUS ★ ★ ★ UNDER PRESSURE ★ ★ DER KOMMISSAR ★ KICK IN THE EYE FILM ATOMIC BLONDE ★ ★ ★ The blonde fantastic The Blonde Fantastic: Charlize Theron is equal parts style and brutality in slick genre piece Atomic Blonde