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I was one of the privileged few to attend the Canadian Premiere at Fantasia last night! It was a packed house and the crowd was so primed.

Here is my spoiler free, quick review/impressions of the film.

 

 

I had mixed feelings about seeing this movie. I saw a trailer and was like… holy crap this looks stunning, but it might just be another ‘hot girl dressed sexy surrounded by unrealistic violence and mostly men’ movie. I decided (evidently) to give it a chance.

I`m both extremely glad I did, and a little bit meh at the same time.

The Positives:

1- This movie does not let you catch your breath. The audience is  relentlessly bombarded with action, intrigue, sex and fantastic images.

2- There is something for everyone. I mean, you can seriously only be into retro fashion subcultures, or be all about brutal combat scenes, or looking for a Bond-type adventure, and enjoy the entirety of this movie.

3- I am a fan of the 80s. And Charlize Theron for real looked like those 80s pop art posters by Patrick Nagel in every frame but the ones she was fighting or bleeding in. My esthetic senses were pleased.

4- The action was brutal and unforgiving of both the men and the women in this film. Charlize took hits that would have knocked Rocky Balboa on his ass in under a second, and the injuries were unforgiving to her appearance. Forget the artful “small bruise around the eye and tastefully split lip’ deal, she fucking looked like she was hit by an 18 wheeler.

5- James MacAvoy. Yes. Doesn`t matter the question, just yes.

 

The Negatives (sort of)

1- You gotta really pay attention. They speak in strong accents, at times very quickly and at times pretty mumbled. I didn`t miss any key plot because of this, but it did kind of break the experience up a bit by making my brain go ‘wait what?’

2- Spy movies are always good fun, but they can sometimes go overboard with the plot twists and intrigue in wanting to surprise the audience. Well done if they pull it off, but in this one I felt a bit disconnected because of how little I had to go on and form my own theories. I do like surprises, but I felt that this was so thickly veiled that it honestly could have gone in any direction and I`d be like ‘oh yeah okay’ instead of “Ah-HAH! So that`s why blah blah blah!’

3- Bill Skarsgård was, in my opinion, underused. Yes, it`s only a small supporting role, and granted, there is only so much room for interesting and complex characters, but I felt like there could have been a bit more to this one. I wanted to see him be more… I dunno. Just more hahaha.

 

So that`s my review! I highly recommend seeing this, I plan on watching it again to see if my opinion was a bit flawed as far as plot went.

And yes, I definitely think there should be more Atomic Blonde movies!

“Blonde, Atomic Blonde.”