'Atomic Blonde' Review

Everybody moans that every action or big budget film now is a sequel, reboot or part of a franchise in some way. Despite being based on a graphic novel, 'Atomic Blonde' looks to offer a new, fresh and vibrant story to the action genre whilst kicking a lot of ass along the way. With Charlize Theron on board, the film certainly fulfills the latter.

Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is a secret agent working for the MI6 who is willing to use any skill or weapon to stay alive during any mission. With the Berlin Wall about to fall, Lorraine must travel to the German capital to retrieve a priceless dossier that is vital to the government. With a few allies, Lorraine must do whatever it takes in order to succeed and survive in her latest mission.

Based on the graphic novel 'The Coldest City', 'Atomic Blonde' is the solo directorial debut from former stuntman and stunt coordinator David Leitch. Leitch has come into fame in recent years with his work in 'John Wick' that has received many plaudits for its sleek look and tremendous action scenes. It comes to no surprise that 'Atomic Blonde' at times seems like what the female version of 'John Wick' would look like.

Leitch's background working with stunt work is yet again clear as 'Atomic Blonde' is filled with many brutal yet brilliant action scenes. Leitch clearly knows how action should be shot, using long continuous takes to make everything seem as realistic as possible whilst maintaining that the viewer can easily see everything that is going on. These techniques were highly successful in the 'Wick' series so far and that has transcended into 'Atomic Blonde'. This is most evident in the truly brilliant stairwell scene where the editing helps keep up this illusion of one continuous shot in what is the best action scene of the year. The action is brutal and inventive as the characters use any object available to them to get the upper hand whilst keeping a feel of realism during the fight scenes. 

There is a slight noir feeling to this film as it the settings are mainly kept bleak whilst occasionally being lit up with neon colours. This gives the film a really sleek look which helps give the film an identity to stand out from many others. From a visual stand point, the film is a joy to look at and everything from the cast, costume, and lighting really helps make this possible. The film has a real sexy vibe to it that adds another layer to the film. Charlize Theron is completely enigmatic in her role where she truly glows which helps bring a new dimension to another action film. Her physical acting in the action scenes is to be admired as it always makes a difference seeing the real actor/actress involved in the big action scenes. Theron certainly will have picked up some injuries from her work as she truly commits to her role.

Although there are some great points and moments about this film, the problems lay heavily with the script. The story is convoluted and filled to the brim with plot points that are all over the place. The film clearly has the ambition to try to be this clever, intricate story that ultimately misses the mark. There is simply too much information and plot lines that the film tries to show and convey which become all muddled up throughout the 115-minute runtime. Due to this, you often forget about most of these elements as they are briefly mentioned or introduced but are then not talked not about again for a long period. There is some decent conflict within the film with the shady nature of the characters leading to some unpredictability in their actions. But there isn't enough of this as the film bounces between different plots surrounding different characters which are simply too complicated within the short time they are given.


It doesn't help that there is an abundance of characters that lack any quality that makes them remotely interesting. As previously mentioned, Theron is fantastic as his her co-star James McAvoy who plays a sleazy untrustworthy ally whose character and relationship should have been explored more to create a greater conflict. With there being so many characters, there is a great lack of emotion or feeling to them. Apart from Theron, you don't really root for any of the allies as you don't know anything about them. There also isn't a villain to detest which would lead to an intriguing yet entertaining climax to the film. Instead, it's just a lot of random faces that you are not invested in at all. Sofia Boutella's character Delphine seems to be the exception as there is development with her character and you actually care about how she progresses as the film goes on. We see a human side to her which makes you take an interest in her which shows that the scriptwriters were more than capable of creating interesting characters that you will care for. Unfortunately, this only happened a few times.

The soundtrack features many great 80s hits from the likes of Eurythmics, Nena and Depeche Mode that do install an 80s feeling to the film. However, the track list does seem very out of place at times, especially in regard to the tone of the film. The likes of 'I Ran' from A Flock of Seagulls felt very out of place during a car chase in what seemed to be a dramatic and serious part of the movie. The tones certainly didn't mix well which made some of the songs feel entirely out of place. With the recent successes of films such as 'Guardians' and 'Baby Driver', it seems like the film felt the best way to get success out of some action scenes was to blare a recognisable pop song alongside it. 'Atomic Blonde' is very different to these in regards to tone so it is no wonder that this same use of music was not nearly as successful.


Sleek, sexy and full of great action, yet 'Atomic Blonde' doesn't reach its full potential, meaning that the film will only be remembered as simply a decent action flick.


Final Verdict: 

So have you seen 'Atomic Blonde'? If so, what did you think of the film? I hope that this review was useful for if you were planning on seeing the film or not. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my review, it is much appreciated!

By Angus McGregor

'Split' Review

Kevin (James McAvoy) has 23 personalities with each of them vying to get an equal share of controlling the body they live within. Kevin abducts three young girls (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula) to a windowless, locked up basement. They are told that them being there will be for a reason as a 24th personality known as 'The Beast' look set to come to life.

2015 saw the return to the big screen for M Night Shyamalan after two years, his last film being sci-fi flop 'After Earth' with Will and Jaden Smith. By this point, Shyamalan had become a bit of a laughing stock with the most recent part of his filmography being universally panned. The world of film relentlessly mocked the Indian-American director/writer/producer for his involvement in 'The Happening' and 'The Last Airbender' to name a few.

Due to this, the world seemed to forget about Shyamalan's early work or wrote them off as flukes or as a lucky run.  Shyamalan shocked the world with 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable' as his ability to create a creepy atmosphere combined with great storytelling made for some great movies. The twist ending also became synonymous with his work and became a trademark that he carried with him through his career. 'Split' is no different to this but mot importantly, it shows that Shyamalan is capable of the quality he produced early on. After the success of his early films, Shyamalan was tipped for greatness- even being described as 'The Next Spielberg' in an issue of 'Newsweek' magazine.

 With such high praise, it may have been easy for it to have gone straight to the former Academy Award nominee's head. It seemingly did just that as his filmography became plagued with bomb after bomb until 2015 where he ended that bad run with the dark comedy 'The Visit'. The film gave hope to fans over the world as maybe, just maybe Shyamalan was getting back to his best form. 'Split' only further cements this as the Shyamalan that we loved looks to have returned.

Shyamalan brings us the same feelings as he did in the like of 'The Sixth Sense'- an eery, intriguing story with dark humour sprinkled throughout the film. There are many moments that feel like an early Shyamalan film, especially due to the twist that comes late on in the film. Shyamalan's ability to craft a story where every detail matters are apparent yet again in this film as there are moments where you think something is unnecessary but it then creeps up on you, later on, bringing a startling revelation along with it. The film isn't perfect as there are some of the poorer Shyamalanisms- some clunky lines of dialogue and placing himself in yet another role helpful to the protagonists but neither are nearly as bad as what we've endured from him before. 

What returns is also a beautifully shot and edited film with Shyamalan working well with cinematographer Mike Gioulakis and editor Luke Franco Ciarrocchi. From the get go, the audience is treated to a wonderful opening credits scene- split into 23 for each of the personalities in the film - as the cast members and directors names come up in bold white block text. The main story takes place mainly in one room and the camera work creates a true claustrophobic feeling as you feel trapped within the confines of this small area. Quite similar to last year's 'Room', on a slightly bigger scale to similar effect. 

James McAvoy gives a career best performance in 'Split' has is given the opportunity to showcase all areas of his acting range. As Kevin who suffers from DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), he has many different personalities, all different to one another. McAvoy bounces between Barrie; a camp fashion designer, Patricia; a well-spoken British woman and Hedwig; a nine-year-old child to name a few. McAvoy excels in a role that would be an actors dream as he shows hi chops in comedy, drama and horror, and all to a very high standard. It's a real shame that the Scotsman isn't getting any nominations this award season as he fully deserves so. It's very harsh that he is being shunned due to the type of film this is as some of the nominees won't be half as good as McAvoy was in 'Split'.

Anya Taylor-Joy cements herself as one of Hollywood's best young talents in her role as Casey, one of the kidnapped girls who has a cool head about her despite what is going on. The character is written extremely well, giving her a very dark past - the most sickening revelation of the whole film - which allows Taylor-Joy to show off her acting range. Taylor-Joy has been a revelation since bursting onto the scene with 2016's 'The Witch'. If the young actress continues making great choices with her roles and continues performing like she is, we may be looking at the next big thing. Taylor-Joy is accompanied by Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula who lend a helping hand in showing the torture and torment from McAvoy's characters. Acting veteran Betty Buckley adds an interesting character as Kevin's therapist who specialises in those who suffer from DID. Buckley brings a calm performance that allows the audience to understand just what the condition is and how it is allowing Kevin to do such things. Again, the character benefits from some strong screenwriting from Shyamalan. 

'Split' is a great return to form for Shyamalan. He really deserves credit for his work in this film as he has gone back to his roots and meticulously planned out and executed an extremely clever story. This modern exploitation film is deeply layered and more is as everything is loosely connected, creating something that we've missed from Shyamalan. A tense thriller throughout with excellent performances, 'Split' is a great watch with plenty to get out of.

Final Verdict = 

So have you seen 'Split'? If so, what did you think of the film? I hope that this review was useful for if you were planning on seeing the movie or not. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my review, it is much appreciated!

By Angus McGregor

'X-Men: Apocalypse' Review

'At least we can all agree the third one is always the worse' states Sophie Turner's character Jean Grey after a few of the mutants come out of a screening of 'Return of the Jedi'. Unfortunately this is also the case for Bryan Singers latest instalment which completes the new X-Men trilogy. 

Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne) stumbles across an ancient cult who believe in a super mutant, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) who ruled thousands of years ago. Now awakened he assembles four followers including Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to take over the world. It's up to Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) to join forces once again with Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and the latest students at his school to save the world.

Fatigue certainly seems to be a clear problem within the latest of the highly successful and popular X-Men franchise. In saying that 'Apocalypse' is far from being a bad movie. The problem is with nowadays that it is just fine, nothing more. The film follows the common formula within superhero movies where a large powerful villain rises and threatens the safety of the entire world. This is fine to do and can be done well. However the problem is that it is nothing new. This made the film to be very predictable and seemed to take away the stakes as it seemed to be something we're all used to. Everything has done before and being perfectly honest, it has been done better. 

From the start it really seemed to be lacking that tension and excitement that are often apparent in superhero movies. Maybe due to the previous instalments it was there but just couldn't match its clearly superior previous instalments. I guess I've finally reached that point where it is becoming stale. I guess this also shows how I enjoyed 'Civil War' and fellow Fox property 'Deadpool' so much this year. Both of these films didn't have the conventional ending of the entire world being threatened which proved to be a good change.

There are most definitely things that the film does well and this is no more so than with the action. I had a great time watching all of these mutants coming against each other creating some great moments. The action is thankfully at a very high quality and does the film justice. However something that I do feel that lets it down is that Apocalypse hardly has much effect in any of the actual fight scenes. For a main villain to delegate everything to his followers and hardly do anything himself doesn't make him seem as strong as they could have possibly made him. 

Apocalypse was said to take the powers from those whose bodies he has taken over. This explains to the audience to why Apocalypse's powers are never really explained or defined that well. I'd like to see a feature of Apocalypse taking over the body of the mutants whose ability was being able to trap people in walls. Oscar Isaac does alright in this role as Apocalypse's main strength seems to be convincing those to join his side. This gives Isaac a chance to showcase his acting chops but nowhere near enough to create a great villain. The casting and character looked to be a great match but Apocalypse fell flat for me and wasn't striking enough to really be feared.

There are some mixed feelings for me towards the other new characters. First of all, the new characters all looked incredible and were great to watch. I am looking forward to seeing more films featuring the newer cast members as they seem to work very well together and produced some great moments. In saying this though, there was nowhere near enough depth towards our new characters. This is no more clear than with the three other new followers of Apocalypse. We get a small look at Storm's origin and life when we first meet her and then literally nothing else in the rest of the film. Angel gets exactly the same treatment but with a bit of history against new student Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit McPhee). Psylocke is probably the one that hurts the most as we learn pretty much nothing about her. We see her confronting Apocalypse, then being convinced and then nothing new from her. These are all a real shame as they are truly fascinating characters who you want to know more about but unfortunately, there was little time for this. You could say that there wouldn't of been enough time for this but you most definitely could have replaced moments or sub plots to make time to flesh out character motivations or personalities.

One of the main highlight again involves Quicksilver played by Evan Peters. Although not as great as his wonderful scene in 'Days of Future Past', it is still great fun to watch. The stakes are higher in this scene however which does also Quicksilver to do a lot more things heroically and comically. It is incredible to see once again showing the ridiculous speed he possesses and is something that makes you wonder how on earth they managed to create it. The ability to take such a serious scenario and take a light hearted approach to it was great again.

Final Verdict =

Overall I would say I was disappointed by 'X-Men Apocalypse'. That does not mean that it is a bad movie in the slightest though and maybe that it just didn't offer enough to reach my expectations. There was potential for this to be a great film but it turns out to just be fine.

So have you seen 'X-Men Apocalypse'? If so what did you think of it? I hope you enjoyed this review and hope it was helpful for if you were thinking about seeing the film. Once again thank you for reading my review, it is much appreciated.

By Angus McGregor