Film Review: Atomic Blonde (2017)

Cold War, which the American military-industrial complex sorely missed and so many influential Boomers in US and other Western governments wish to reignite, evokes nostalgia for the “good old days”. Unlike today, nuclear weapons at the time were in the hands of leaders deemed more mentally stable than today’s, reducing the risk of global apocalypse. This global conflict also provided far richer terrain for spy thriller and action film writers. On one hand, there was a relatively clear division between Good Guys and Bad Guys; on the other, there was a wide array of exotic locations where bizarre plots and eccentric protagonists could unfold. Even artsy, highbrow filmmakers like Luc Besson couldn’t resist this allure—his 1990 blockbuster La Femme Nikita, one of the last major films to capitalise on the Cold War’s legacy, epitomised this trend. Though this premise has been remade multiple times across film and TV in the decades since, today’s best candidate to revive it would be Atomic Blonde, David Leitch’s action film starring Charlize Theron.

The film is based on Coldest City, a 2012 graphic novel by Antony Johnston. It captivated Theron, who campaigned for years to adapt it and also produced the project. The plot is set in Berlin in the winter of 1989, just before the dramatic events that would lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the communist Eastern Bloc. The protagonist, Lorraine Broughton—a MI6 operative—is sent to West Berlin to investigate the murder of her colleague by KGB agents from East Berlin, while also attempting to recover a list of double agents held by Spyglass (Eddie Marsan), an East German intelligence officer planning to defect to the West. Her mission is complicated by David Percival (James McAvoy), an eccentric MI6 station chief in West Berlin whose loyalty is questionable, and by becoming the target of surveillance by Delphine Lasalle (Sophie Boutella), a young French intelligence agent whose motives are not purely professional.

Atomic Blonde primarily targets fans of 1980s action films—specifically those nostalgic for movies rated “R” by today’s Hollywood standards. This includes over-the-top stunts, explosions, gunfights drenched in blood, and scenes of nudity and sex, which, of course, must be lesbian. The filmmakers also aim to showcase musical taste, flooding the soundtrack with 1980s pop hits, including clever references like Tetris, which helps older audiences relive the “good old days”. The content is delivered exceptionally engagingly, especially in the film’s visceral fight scenes, where the quantity and intensity of violence are balanced with realism. A narrative structure centred on flashbacks further enhances this, with the most striking opening scene depicting the protagonist taking a bath in an ice-filled tub, revealing numerous bruises on her bare body.

While the film is gripping and deserves applause from genre enthusiasts, it will disappoint those expecting a plot resembling the complexity of John le Carré’s novels. Decades of global ideological conflict are reduced to cheap slogans spat out by a CIA official (played by the always reliable John Goodman), and the plot itself is overly simplistic—relying on a MacGuffin that might belong in a parody. Neither the character dynamics nor the plot twists will surprise audiences. The film’s only “deeper” resonance lies in geopolitical allegories: suggestions that the US-German alliance (hinted at by a protagonist named “Merkel”) represents the sole effective bulwark against the evil Russians, unlike the inept “Brexit”-sympathising Brits (embodied by the protagonist’s incompetent superiors). The KGB antagonist (played by Danish actor Roland Møller), who mocks Western culture and Eastern Germans alike, bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain real-life Russian counterpart. Still, all this pales compared to the film’s core nostalgia for an era many might consider distant history, whether fondly or not.

The film’s greatest flaw is its lack of ambition. While its homage to 1980s action aesthetics is sharp—especially in fight choreography and its Tarantino-esque visual flair—the script’s ideological laziness undermines its potential. Comparisons to Inglorious Basterds (with which it shares parts of its soundtrack) reveal how the film resembles what Tarantino’s work might have looked like if transplanted to the 1980s and stripped of its signature wit. For all its style, Atomic Blonde remains a hollow vessel for nostalgia, trading substance for spectacle. It’s a thrilling ride, but one that never transcends its genre roots—a reminder that even the Cold War’s faded glamour can’t compensate for weak storytelling.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here

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