'Atomic Blonde' blows an opportunity to revitalize spy genre

Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde

As I waited for Atomic Blonde to begin a trailer for the upcoming Kingsman sequel came on. It looks like a fun, slightly bigger budget retread of the original -- which is fine -- but it also reminded me of how much I miss James Bond and how his absence from the big screen (and Jason Bourne's stumble upon his return) has left a vacuum in the spy genre waiting to be filled.

Atomic Blonde -- starring Charlize Theron as a super stylish, butt-kicking secret agent -- could have been a refreshing new spin on the spy movie -- in the same way that Wonder Woman opened up a whole new world for the superhero film, but instead it's about two thirds music video and then one third John Wick knock-off.

The movie is directed by one-half of the duo behind the original John Wick -- David Leitch -- but he appears to not have learned the lessons of what made that Keanu Reeves comeback vehicle so great. The Wick films are both incredible action movies and also incredibly self-aware about their absurdity.

They are both fun and funny, two things Atomic Blonde decidedly is not. They also play off of Reeves' laconic personality, giving him little to say and making him more effective because of it. In this case Theron, who proved she can be a formidable presence in an action movie with Mad Max: Fury Road, is being used largely to lean on her sex appeal and her performance can be deduced to one long strut with a dicey British accent attached to it.

She doesn't really have charisma or a character, she looks incredible and throws herself into both the action and the sexuality of this movie (which some could argue is exploitative), but there is no "there" there.

The movie is set in Berlin right before the wall came down in 1989 for seemingly no reason other than to bathe the soundtrack in blaring '80s pop classics which get increasingly tedious as this overlong film grinds from one contrived twist to another.

It does contain one bravura sequence (most of the best action set pieces are unfortunately spoiled by the trailer) that is worth standing up an applauding for. It takes place in what is meant to appear to be one long continuous shot and features Theron in a series of knock down, drag out fights with a seemingly endless number of henchman, leaving her and the bad guys a bloody pulp.

This whole bit actually delivers on the prolonged promise of the movie. Before this scene, the movie is marred by aping far too many spy movie tropes handled better by far superior films. Even the movie's structure -- using an interrogation scene as a framing device -- feels like well-trodden territory.

Coming on the heels of action pictures that at least try to do something different -- like Baby Driver and Good Time -- Atomic Blonde feels like an unwelcome throwback to a time when stupidity wasn't a detriment to an action film's appeal and success.

Atomic Blonde is not necessarily stupid, but it is smug. It presumes audiences will be satisfied just to watch Theron puff on cigarettes and deliver her stilted dialogue in the same husky whisper she brought to the last Fast & Furious movie. And my hunch tells me that's not enough to take this movie to the next level, where it becomes something akin to an event that you can't wait to watch when it's streaming.

In another, weaker year, Atomic Blonde would be perfectly serviceable action fare, but this has been a great year for genre pictures and your money is better spent elsewhere.