Atomic Blonde (2017) review

Atomic Blonde is an action film that’s headlined by two of the genre’s biggest rising stars. The first is its leading lady, Charlize Theron. Of course, prior to this, Theron’s already had a long career in the film industry. She’s starred in several critical hits over the years and she also won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in 2003’s Monster. However, she’s recently begun to make a name for herself as an action star, thanks in part to her iconic turn as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. The other big name on this project is its director, David Leitch. Like Theron, Leitch has been in the film industry for a long time; for most of that time, though, he’s mainly been known for his work as a stuntman/stunt coordinator. Since 1995, he’s worked in the stunt department on several big-name films, including Fight Club, Serenity, and The Bourne Ultimatum just to name a few. Only recently has he moved into the field of directing. He made his official directorial debut in 2014 as the uncredited co-director alongside fellow stuntman Chad Stahelski on the modern action classic, John Wick. And while he didn’t return to direct this year’s sequel, John Wick: Chapter Two, he’s already been lined up to direct some major projects, including the highly anticipated sequel to 2016’s smash hit, Deadpool. But first, we have his official ‘solo’ debut, Atomic Blonde. The film is based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart. And thanks to the combined efforts of Theron and Leitch, Atomic Blonde is an edgy/badass action thriller that features the same kind of incredible action sequences that made Leitch’s other directorial claim to fame, John Wick, such a success.

In the year 1989, Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is a top-level agent working for MI6. Around the same time that the Berlin Wall is set to come down, she is approached by her superiors, Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and ‘Chief C’ (James Faulkner), with her latest mission. One of her fellow MI6 agents, James Gasciogne (Sam Hargrave), who Lorraine happens to have had a close relationship with, was just murdered in Berlin. Stolen from his body was ‘The List’, a bit of microfilm containing the identities of all undercover operatives who are currently stationed in the Soviet Union. To protect the identities of her fellow agents, Lorraine is dispatched to Berlin to not only retrieve the list but to also take out the double agent who betrayed Gasciogne in the first place known only as ‘Satchel’. Once there, she is joined by her main contact, agent David Percival (James McAvoy), while also engaging in a relationship with undercover French agent Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella). But in her efforts to obtain the list and take out ‘Satchel’, Lorraine finds herself embroiled in an increasingly complicated game of cat and mouse as she’s forced to act fast before ‘Satchel’ puts a target on her back as well. And as she soon finds out, some of her closest allies may not be as trustworthy as they seem.

As implied in the intro, Atomic Blonde does share some similarities with John Wick… at least, more than just the fact that they share one of the same directors. Both films center around a badass main protagonist who fights their way through a non-stop barrage of thugs to achieve their mission. They also share admittedly simple plots that still manage to be effective enough leverage for the events that transpire in them. And in the case of Atomic Blonde, this is primarily through its retro setting of Berlin near the end of the Cold War, which does provide a neat backdrop for this film’s main plot. With that said, though, Atomic Blonde does take a little while to get going, partially because it spends a considerable amount of its first half just setting up the plot. And really, the plot in this is mainly just a simple ‘cat and mouse’ plot with some predictable twists and turns along the way, which unfortunately makes it the weakest aspect of the film. But once Atomic Blonde’s second half rolls around, that’s when it truly steps into high gear as a highly entertaining action thriller. Leitch’s experience working in both the stunt industry and on John Wick translates perfectly to this film’s action sequences. Just like in John Wick, they are fantastically shot and brilliantly choreographed. Thus, Atomic Blonde easily features some of the best action sequences of the year, including an epic long-take fight sequence (about nine minutes (!), to be precise) that’s set in an old apartment building. This, for the most part, does make up for some of the film’s narrative shortcomings.

As for the film’s cast, Charlize Theron is truly the star of the show here. She’s more than proven herself to be a badass action star in the past, and that very much shows in this film’s incredible action sequences. And even though the film’s main plot is a simple one, Lorraine Broughton is still a fascinating main character. Her standoffish, no-nonsense attitude provides us with some interesting glimpses into her overall characterization as well as some entertainingly blunt arguments with her main associate, James McAvoy’s David Percival. McAvoy ends up getting a lot of the film’s best humorous moments due in part to the character’s roguish playboy personality. Another standout of the cast is Sofia Boutella as the seductive French operative Delphine. She has terrific chemistry with Theron and their characters share a solid relationship that’s more than just sexual, as Broughton basically takes Delphine under her wing when it’s established that the latter hasn’t had much experience out in the field. As for the rest of the cast, their roles in the film are minor by comparison but they are all solid in their respective roles and they work well with Theron in the scenes that they share with her. This includes, among others, Eddie Marsan as a defecting Soviet officer codenamed ‘Spyglass’, Til Schweiger as an enigmatic MI6 ally known only as ‘the Watchmaker’, and John Goodman as CIA agent Emmett Kurzfeld.

Under the direction of one-half of the duo behind John Wick, Atomic Blonde is just as badass as that film in terms of its impressive action sequences. My friend/colleague Michael Kaye of Geeks+Gamers said it best; Leitch’s experience in the stunt industry makes him a perfect candidate for directing action films. Like John Wick, this film features incredible action sequences, especially in the second half of the film. With that said, though, there are a few instances where the first half of the film drags a bit, namely to delve into exposition regarding set-ups for some admittedly clear-cut plot twists. Granted, also like John Wick, the plot isn’t meant to be the focus of the film; thus, it’s okay that this film’s plot is just a simple spy story and not much more than that. Still, it’s because of the simplistic nature of the plot that I admittedly don’t consider Atomic Blonde to be ‘as good’ as John Wick. However, I can’t deny that this is a solidly entertaining action thriller. It’s got a nice edge to it and, of course, it’s all highlighted by Charlize Theron’s excellent performance in the lead role. Now, for the record, I haven’t read the graphic novel that this is based on, The Coldest City, so I can’t really comment on how effective this was at adapting the source material. Though, from what I’ve heard, the graphic novel was a bit more focused on the espionage aspect of the story than its action sequences. Still, on a weekend where the internet is getting a bit too obsessed with a film that has gotten universally negative reviews (you know EXACTLY what film I’m talking about), thankfully this film is around to give audiences a good time.

Rating: 4/5

The Mummy (2017) review

From 1923 to 1960, Universal Studios was best known for their wide variety of monster films, featuring iconic characters like Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Wolf Man, just to name a few. Many of them were huge critical and commercial hits in their time and, thus, still stand as some of the greatest films in the horror genre. Since then, these classic monsters have gone through various re-imaginings over the years, though usually not through Universal. Their only credited ‘remakes’ to date are the Mummy trilogy starring Brendan Fraser, a 1979 adaptation of Dracula, 2004’s Van Helsing, 2010’s The Wolfman, and 2014’s Dracula Untold. That last film was intended to be the first in a new line of Universal Monster films set within a shared universe a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, in the years since its release, it’s been retroactively dismissed from the studio’s overall plans. Thus, here we are now with the ‘real’ first official entry in this new line of Universal Monster films; The Mummy. Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of the first two Star Trek reboot films and other various franchise efforts, directs the first installment of a series that’s being dubbed as the Dark Universe. Several ‘re-imaginings’ are in the works at this moment, but for now, it all starts with Universal’s second major reboot of their 1932 horror classic, The Mummy. However, despite the best efforts of Kurtzman and his stacked ensemble cast, led by Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, and Sofia Boutella in the title role, this new take on The Mummy suffers from a bland script that ultimately makes it a rather dull affair.

In modern-day Iraq, a team of military operatives, led by Sgt. Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), come across an ancient Egyptian tomb despite being thousands of miles from Egypt. Morton and his team, including Sgt. Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) and archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), soon learn that this tomb is the resting place for a former princess named Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). Back in her day, she was slated to be next in line for the throne of Egypt as the only offspring of the current king. However, those plans change when her father’s new wife ends up having a son. Making a deal with the deity Set, she kills her father, his wife, and their newborn son, but is mummified alive before managing to give Set a human body to inhabit as per their agreement. Back in the present, the efforts of Nick’s team to excavate Ahmanet’s coffin from the tomb cause a chain reaction of events that results in the destruction of their plane when they leave the area, with Nick having seemingly gone down with it. However, he somehow miraculously survives this, something that confounds him just as much as it does his peers. To make matters worse, Ahmanet ends up escaping from her coffin and continues her efforts to become ruler of the world. And as Nick finds out, these plans of hers end up involving him as well when Ahmanet prepares to have him be her new human sacrifice for Set. While this is going on, Nick also comes across a mysterious organization known as ‘Prodigium’, led by scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe), that investigates into matters like this. 

It seems like this new Mummy is trying to be a mix of both the 1932 original and the 1999 remake. In other words, whereas the 1999 remake was primarily an action-adventure flick, this new film tries to combine elements from both that and the original, which was strictly a horror film. It’s a shame, really, that it ultimately doesn’t deliver as either a horror film or an action-adventure film. I mean, it may just be because I’m not a big horror fan compared to others, but I didn’t find this film to be that ‘scary’. Instead, it ultimately feels more like the action-oriented romps that the Brendan Fraser Mummy films were... and yet even that aspect of the film is mediocrely done. To the film’s credit, the action sequences are, at the very least, well-directed, and everything’s fine from a technical perspective. However, it feels like these action sequences are few and far between in this because every other scene is exposition-based, making the entire film feel slow and uneventful. I’m usually not one to criticize trailers for revealing too much, but this is a legitimate instance where the trailers basically showed off every major sequence in this film. But then what about the film’s efforts to establish a full-on cinematic universe based around the Universal Monsters? Well, even that aspect feels underdeveloped as there are no real allusions to other monsters in this aside from the appearance of Dr. Jekyll and his evil counterpart, Mr. Hyde. I mean, I’m not saying that these films should be exactly like Marvel, where they can have other characters appear in films where they’re not the focus. This is, after all, just the first installment of a new series. But, still, it would’ve at least helped in this instance because it could’ve made this film more interesting. As is, it feels more like it’s setting up future Dark Universe films instead of trying to be a Mummy film.  

The dull and underdeveloped nature of the script also ends up affecting the film’s main characters, who are all generally bland. Tom Cruise is fine as he always is, and Annabelle Wallis is solid as well as the film’s main female lead, but neither get anything major to work with. This is the case despite everything that happens to the former in this film, while the latter is simply relegated to being a ‘damsel in distress’ most of the time. Technically speaking, Jake Johnson gets more to work with in this than either of them combined, and yet his whole role in the film is to just pop in and out from time to time with what I can basically describe as ‘humorous’ commentary (I use the term ‘humorous’ loosely because this film’s efforts at humor are lackluster at best) that only Cruise’s character can witness because, minor spoiler, Johnson’s character gets infected by Ahmanet and becomes one of her minions. Speaking of Ahmanet, Sofia Boutella is also fine enough in her respective role and it is a nice twist to have the main Mummy villain be a female this time around. However, like her co-stars, she is severely hindered by the mediocre material that she’s working with. In fact, she doesn’t really do that much in this which, sadly, means that her character comes off as being not much of a threat in the grand scheme of things. Thus, the most interesting character in the film ends up being Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. Again, this is another prime example of a character who’s clearly being set up to have a larger role in future films. Still, for the brief screen-time that he has in this film, Crowe ends up having the best screen presence out of the entire cast, especially when he’s in his ‘Mr. Hyde’ phase.   

Going in, you wouldn’t expect a Mummy film starring Tom Cruise to be dull… and yet, this film somehow ended up doing exactly that. Now, I don’t blame this on director Alex Kurtzman; he, at least, does a solid enough job when it comes to directing, especially in terms of the film’s action sequences. Ultimately, the film’s biggest issues lie in its script. Not only does this film suffer from a mediocre plot, but it feels like it’s just meant to be set-up for future entries in this new Dark Universe instead of being a Mummy film. And because of this, it fails to make much of an impression, effectively stranding its talented ensemble cast in a slow and ho-hum attempt at mixing elements of action and horror. However, I’m still generally optimistic about this Dark Universe. For one thing, out of all the proposed cinematic universes that have been tossed around in the news from Transformers to Ghostbusters, this plan of doing a universe around Universal’s monsters arguably has the most potential because it has happened before back when this series was in its prime (e.g. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man). Besides, we just came off an instance where the fate of a planned Cinematic Universe was saved with a critically-acclaimed outing via Wonder Woman and the DC Extended Universe. In other words, one disastrous effort, even if it’s the first installment of a new series as this film is, doesn’t automatically mean that the entire franchise is dead on arrival (no pun intended). Thus, I’m looking forward to the next installment of this Dark Universe franchise; a new take on Bride of Frankenstein directed by Bill Condon. I strongly feel that this one could work because Condon is no stranger to the material, having directed a 1998 film titled Gods and Monsters which focused on that film’s production. As for The Mummy, though, it’s not ‘god-awful’ or anything; it’s just that it could’ve been a lot better given the talent involved.

Rating: 2/5

Star Trek Beyond (2016) review

As I’ve gone over quite a few times already these past few years, I am a huge fan of the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek films. The 2009 Star Trek ‘reboot’ not only introduced me to the franchise, as was the case with other franchise newcomers, but also ended up becoming one of my favorite films of all-time period. As a result, the sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, was my most anticipated film of 2013. And while I personally really loved it, the same couldn’t be said for most long-time Star Trek fans. In fact, most Trek fans heavily despise the J.J. films for allegedly not staying true to the franchise’s roots and Into Darkness got a considerable amount of backlash for its re-imaginings of scenes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. So with all of that in mind, there was certainly a lot of pressure on the third of these J.J.-era (or should I say ‘Kelvin’ era as it’s recently been designated) films to adhere more to what made the franchise so popular in the first place. This time around, though, J.J. wasn’t available to direct due to his work on a certain other film that starts with the word ‘Star’. So in his place is Justin Lin and while a lot of Trek fans weren’t too pleased with the hiring of ‘another action director’, Lin’s work on the Fast and Furious films have made him one of the best action directors in the business. Plus, he made it clear that he was a Trek fan and with the addition of franchise star Simon Pegg as one of the film’s co-writers, it looked as if this new Trek film would fare much better with fans. And sure enough, Star Trek Beyond, the 13^th installment of this iconic sci-fi franchise, is one heck of an exciting space adventure. For fans of the J.J. films like myself, this is just yet another super entertaining film that maintains all of the things that made the previous two films so great. But for more hardcore Trek fans, they’re probably going to like this one better.

At the end of Star Trek Into Darkness, the crew of the USS Enterprise, as led by Captain James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), set off on a five-year journey into uncharted space. As this film begins, the Enterprise is three years into the voyage and while things have been going fairly smoothly for the crew, Kirk is considering applying for a promotion to the position of Vice Admiral due to him beginning to really feel the monotony of being a starship captain. After briefly stopping at Yorktown, an advanced Starbase, the crew are sent out on a rescue mission when an escape pod is found and its sole occupant, an alien named Kalara (Lydia Wilson), says that her ship got stranded in a nearby nebula. However, this ends up being a trap as the Enterprise is ambushed by a swarm of alien ships led by their fearsome alien commander Krall (Idris Elba), who is seeking a mysterious alien artifact that the Enterprise had recently found. The Enterprise is destroyed but the crew manages to abandon ship and they end up on a nearby planet. With no ship and no way of sending out a distress signal, Kirk, along with his fellow crewmates; first officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), medical officer Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (Karl Urban), communications officer Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana), engineer Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg), helmsman Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), and navigator Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin), as well as a new ally in Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a scavenger who’s been living on the planet for some time, race to stop Krall before he can collect the artifact and use it to attack the Federation.

As noted earlier, one of the main issues that ‘Trekkers’ have had with the J.J.-directed films is that they don’t really feel much like Trek films. While I personally disagree with that argument, I will admit that out of all of these recent Trek films, Beyond is certainly the most Trek-ish of the bunch. The whole plot of Kirk and crew stranded on an alien planet definitely feels like something you’d see on an episode of The Original Series. By comparison, the last two films were more focused on the origins of the Enterprise crew before they set off on their five-year mission. However, if we’re talking overall execution, Beyond very much maintains the same level of action as its two predecessors. So with that said, I’m not entirely sure if this will win over every Trek fan because it’s still very much an action-oriented film and not necessarily a ‘cerebral’ kind of story as I find that some fans were wanting out of these newer films. But as someone who actually does prefer the action-oriented style of the newer Trek films, this film was right up my alley and I loved every second of it. The action is excellent as are the visuals and Justin Lin’s direction is solid throughout. Plus, amidst all of the action, the film makes sure to spend time further developing its characters, namely by giving them some effectively emotional character moments. Now I’ll admit that I don’t think this film actually has as much emotional depth as the previous two films but even with that said, there are still plenty of emotional moments in this film, like Spock struggling to cope with the idea of mortality following a recent tragedy (the details of which I won’t reveal here as they’re kind of spoiler-y).   

I don’t really need to go over the main cast that much because this is the third film that they’ve been in. Simply put, they’re just as phenomenal as they’ve been in the last two films. One of my absolute favorite things about these new Trek films has been the camaraderie amongst the main ensemble and I’m happy to report that this is once again the case here, resulting in plenty of humorous banter amongst them. Though with that said, it’s also a little bittersweet knowing that this is the last we’ll see of Anton Yelchin in the role of Chekov, as Yelchin tragically passed away a month ago in a car accident. So instead of focusing on the main cast, let’s focus on the newcomers, specifically Sofia Boutella as Jaylah and Idris Elba as the film’s main villain Krall. Boutella made quite an excellent first impression in her first ‘major’ film role as Gazelle, the main henchwoman of Samuel L. Jackson’s Valentine in last year’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and she’s once again excellent here. Simply put, Jaylah’s a pretty badass female lead but is one that is also very layered as well as shown in her backstory and her motivation of getting off of the planet. As for Elba as Krall, I must say that these new Trek films have done a pretty excellent job with their villains. I can’t say at the moment if Krall is as good as or better than Nero (Trek ’09) or Khan (Into Darkness) but Elba certainly makes the character a very memorable and quite intimidating adversary for Kirk and company. Plus, his main motivation and backstory are quite well-developed.

As someone who absolutely loved J.J. Abrams’ two Star Trek films, Star Trek Beyond most certainly delivered on everything that I love about these newer Trek films. The action and visuals are excellent, the plot is solid, and the characters are excellently handled in terms of both the performances and strong camaraderie of the actors/actresses who play them as well as the excellent character development that they get to work with. However, I’m well-aware that this film has a lot to prove as most Trek purists weren’t too pleased with the last two films. And while I personally will defend both the 2009 Trek and Into Darkness come hell or high water, I have the feeling that they’re going to like this film a whole lot more. Because while it’s still very much the action-oriented style that the two J.J. films maintained, the plot is certainly much more Trek-y in terms of its overall execution. So in short, thanks to the solid direction from Justin Lin, who proves to be an excellent successor to J.J., as well as the solid writing from writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, Star Trek Beyond is yet another fantastic entry in this legendary franchise. And for someone like me who grew up not with the Original Series but with J.J.’s films, it’s just another home run hit for the franchise’s modern era and I can’t wait to see what happens next for my favorite Enterprise crew. In fact, we already know one key detail of what will happen next as it was recently confirmed that Chris Hemsworth, who had a minor role in the 2009 film, will be returning in the next film to reprise his role as Kirk’s father George. Could this potentially be the last of the J.J.-era Trek films? We don’t know for sure just yet but needless to say I’m super excited for the new Star Trek IV, in which Kirk’s overall arc of trying to live up to his father’s legacy will no doubt come full circle.

Rating: 5/5!