Atomic Blonde Analysis (2017)

Emily E Laird
Aug 25, 2017 · 7 min read

As I said in my analysis on the rise of the female power protagonist, Atomic Blonde had the potential to make a real impact on the action film genre and mainstream film as a whole. Time will tell if it turns out to be true, but for now I will say that I am truly impressed by this film. I personally feel there is still something brewing for the female power protagonist, as I write this talks are going on for another Wonder Woman film. This is good news, it might be more mass produced industry material, but still as good of news as that can be. I never thought the day would come where I would be complimenting a film born out of the talent which made the John Wick franchise, or a film directed by a stunt coordinator (David Leitch) for that matter. One of the writers, Kurt Johnstad, is even credited for working on the 300 movies… But despite all of these red flags, a good action was made from their collaborations. The film is based off of the Oni Press graphic novel series “The Coldest City” written by Johnstad and Sam Hart.

From denofgeek.com

Reviews for the films are mixed. Manohla Dargis’ review from the New York Times was particularly venomous, “The movie is an excuse to watch a beautiful, deviously clever female avatar as she is stripped naked, dolled up and repeatedly beaten down only to rise again” . Here is a link to the full review: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/movies/atomic-blonde-review-charlize-theron.html?referrer=google_kp I strongly disagree with Dargis. First of all, the king of franchise action films, James Bonds, is employed in the same exact way, except of course he is male. Why can’t we have a sexy and violent women stepping into these sudo-Bond (high heeled) shoes? You can say the same thing about bond, we are sexualizing him, we see James bond half naked in any number of his films. But no one complains when you see too much of Daniel Craig’s chest now do we? There is never a call against the sexual exploitation of men in film, it is accepted or worse, not looked as a something that is being done, but God forbid we open the film with a naked bruised woman in a bathtub. Secondly, Several of those instances where we see her naked are used to show all of the cuts and bruises covering Theron’s body, they are not being employed in the narrative to sexualize her. I actually really appreciated those scenes, because you rarely see the results of all those flashy choreographed actions sequences on the character, you see her pain, the bruises are ugly and that is her sacrifice. The camera lingers on her injuries, you are forced to see the pain and ugly-ness of them. I also really resent Dargis calling Theron’s representation of her character of Lorraine Broughton an “avatar”. That’s all that I’m going to say on that right now.

www.bleedingcool.com

I personally do not see anything sexual in these sequences. We are being shown the consequences of her life as a spy. I see a strong and damaged women doing what she needs to do to go on, even if that is sitting a bathtub full of ice and drinking a Stoli on the rocks (we all do what need to do).

http://manapop.com

Andrew Barker from Variety provides a more comprehensive review: http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/atomic-blonde-review-charlize-theron-1202007509/, I do agree with him on a few points. The story does not really provide any meaningful character development for the main character, so we are really not all that emotionally invested. Also, the one relationship that does form for Theron’s character, with a young French spy (Sofia Boutella), is not developed in any way. This was a really great opportunity to grow Theron’s character. One of the biggest criticisms in general I have found people have with this film is that Theron is just too cold and emotionless, while this might be true, I would like to argue, given the plot, is this really a bad thing? I still loved her as a character even though I knew the bare minimum about her. The film is about her mission as a spy, not as a person, as a spy. That is the whole point, spy's don’t have identities per say. They in themselves must become one dimensional in order to survive. One could argue this an excuse to not develop the character, I wasn’t in the writing room so who knows, but I feel it really works, cop-out or not. We can see the shadow of a more developed personality underneath but it is hidden on purpose. The second criticism was that the plot is full of holes and its too confusing. It’s an espionage film set during the cold, and it revolves around double agents and stolen information, of course it’s confusing, people please… That is the joy of espionage films, you never really know who is on who’s side until the very end, the true end goal should be shrouded in secret and hidden. No, the plot is not perfect, but no film’s plot is.

Having been directed by a stunt coordinator with credits like Fight Club (1999), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and, V for Vendetta (2005) the action sequences are a true force to be reckoned with. I am not a huge fan of massive, long, action scenes, but I loved every second of the ones in Atomic Blonde. They were different from all other action sequences I had seen previously. The camera was not afraid to get deep between the characters, the handheld work was truly elegant and flowed with Theron’s movements like a ballet full of fists and blood. One thing the director did, which I feel made the most amazing impact, is he didn’t use music or part of the soundtrack during the fight scenes. You were left with the diagetic sounds, the painful sounds of a fist hitting bone, Theron grunting and yelling. And as stylized as those scenes were, it brought them in and grounded them in ways that I didn’t think those sequences could be. It is stylized and choreographed to the nines, but it is gritty and hard, there is nothing pretty about those scenes. They also serve as a great counter to the more hyper-stylized neon bar and club scenes. The cinematographer Jonathan Sela, who also worked on John Wick, did an amazing job contrasting these scenes while still making it so the whole film felt cohesive. I love the Refn-esque (Nicolas Winding Refn for those of who who didn’t get that) lighting he used in this bar scene (pictured below). This style of cinematography might not appeal to everyone as much as it does me, but I loved every frame of this film. This is the kind of work that gives me faith in the positive potentials of digital cinema (I can’t remember the last time I said a movie made me love the digital format, possibly with Scorsese’s Silence), the texture and the vivid tones are just begging your eyes to soak them in.

The soundtrack for the film is fun and dripping with 80’s nostalgia. It was even bookened with two David Bowie songs: Cat People (Putting Out Fire) and Under Pressure, how can you possibly go wrong with that?

from www.indiewire.com

So, what impact could this film make? Well, sadly, so far it does not look like it will have as big an impact as I had hoped. So far it has made a world wide gross of $74,470,065, which is not terrible, it also made more than 2014’s John Wick, check out Box Office Mojo’s breakdown and comparisons: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=atomicwick.htm . While it has surpassed John Wick at the box office, it doesn’t appear that the fan base will be nearly as large. Within my own circle of friends and colleagues I am one of few who have actually seen it, do with that information what you like. Maybe time will be kinder to Atomic Blonde than the immediate future, I was never good at predicting what the mass audience wants…

I want to see more female power protagonists, everyone cry's their lungs out for more equal gender representation, and more female centered films that are actually smart. So where are those voices now? I would love to know. This film should have more support from women, Dargis’ article is proof of the lack of support. It’s great that everyone rallied around Wonder Women, thought not surprising in the least, where are they for Atomic Blonde?

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Emily E Laird

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My writing consists of critical and personal articles about film and the world of cinema that I call home.

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