CinemaNerdz

The Preview Reel: Atomic Blonde Takes on the Emojis

Scott Davis
The Preview Reel

Welcome to this week’s “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide-release movies. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk dominated the box office last weekend with an outstanding $50.5 million debut, but it looks to be a one week reign as two high profile releases hit the screens this week. Atomic Blonde is an R-rated action flick starring Charlize Theron, and The Emoji Movie is a movie about, you guessed it, emojis. We think you know which one we’re more excited about, but let’s break them down to see if either is a better choice than seeing Dunkirk again.

 

Atomic Blonde

What we are excited about: This movie is from one-half of the directing team responsible for the awesome John Wick (2014), David Leitch, who is also directing next year’s Deadpool 2. The trailers make it seem like Charlize Theron is a female John Wick, which is way more than okay in our book. Theron has been arguably the biggest female action star in Hollywood over the last couple of years with roles in such movies as Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and The Fate of the Furious (2017). This movie seems designed to highlight all of her talents, and the director’s for that matter as well. We hope we get something on the level of John Wick.

What we are worried about: While we are excited about essentially a “female” John Wick movie, we are a little worried about this being style over substance. Both John Wick movies were able to craft a unique world for its hitman. Is Atomic Blonde going to do the same? Or is it just going to be Theron kicking butt for two hours? While there’s nothing wrong with that, this could be just an entertaining movie rather than a memorable one if it doesn’t have the characters or story to back it up.

The Buzz: This film has enjoyed a huge amount of buzz ever since it debuted at South by Southwest back in March. Reviews were extremely enthusiastic coming out of the festival, but they’ve fallen slightly back down to Earth in the time since. It currently sits at 74% on RottenTomatoes and 63 on MetaCritic, which is good for an action flick. Look for a solid opening around $20 million.

Final Thoughts: Charlize Theron teaming up with a director from John Wick for an R-rated action flick? Yeah, we’re in.

 

The Emoji Movie

What we are excited about: Let’s flashback to early 2014. Weeks leading up to the release of The Lego Movie, people were hating on the film and using it as an example of how Hollywood was running out of ideas. That movie ended up being one of the most original offerings of the year and everything about it was, well, awesome. Now we’re not saying the same thing is going to happen with The Emoji Movie, mainly because it doesn’t have the same talent behind it, but it could end up being a clever little animated movie. If it’s half as good as The Lego Movie, then maybe this will be a late-summer surprise.

What we are worried about: The trailers have not been impressive. The story seems a little too forced and the jokes are far too obvious. Also, the writer and director of this movie is most famous for penning Kronk’s New Groove (2005) and writing/directing Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005). Yes, we haven’t seen those straight to DVD movies either.

The Buzz: The internet has been bashing this movie ever since it was announced, but not everyone on the internet has a family. Family audiences have mostly been ignored for a month since Despicable Me 3 (2017) came out, so this should be a sizable hit regardless of reviews. No reviews were available at the time of this writing (not a good sign), but still, look for The Emoji Movie to top the box office with around $30 million.

Final Thoughts: Much like the main character of this movie, we’re “meh” to this movie.

Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
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