Atomic Blonde: Is Charlize Theron a female James Bond?

Cold War spy thriller Atomic Blonde, which opens in UK cinemas this week, has critics calling Charlize Theron the greatest action hero in film.

John Wick director David Leitch takes the helm of this action-heavy espionage story based on Antony Johnston's graphic novel The Coldest Day. Set in 1989, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, it follows Theron's tough MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton on a mission to foil a ruthless Soviet spy ring.

A top supporting cast includes James McAvoy as a Berlin station chief, Toby Jones as an MI6 handler, John Goodman as a CIA spy and Sofia Boutella as the mysterious Delphine.

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Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent compares Atomic Blonde to summer action hit Baby Driver. Both "use music like oxygen", she says, but what Baby Driver lacks is Charlize Theron.

Loughrey dubs the actor "Hollywood’s Daenerys Targaryen" and says in Atomic Blonde, she "kicks ass in every corner of the frame" and is "one of today’s greatest action stars".

"You’ll struggle to take your eyes off Theron," says Helen O'Hara in Empire, adding the role "earns [Theron] a place beside (Jason) Bourne, (Ethan) Hunt and the rest".

The film is a "Bond ambition tour" for Leitch, she says, although it is "edgier and more brutal than any Bond film".

John DeFore in the Hollywood Reporter agrees the most obvious comparison for Theron is the "earthily violent incarnation of James Bond". However, he adds, as enjoyable as Atomic Blonde can be, it also shows the actor deserves an even better role - if not "Bond, Jane Bond", then at least something with more interest in her personality.

Kevin Fallon in the Daily Beast is not of that opinion. Atomic Blonde proves Theron is "the action hero with a license to kill that we need", deserve, and "sadly, may never appreciate enough", he says, and calling Lorraine “the female James Bond” is at once "apt, progressive, and reductive".

Fallon believes Theron's performance both "stands on its own" and is "a one-two knockout" following her Mad Max: Fury Road. He concludes that it cements her as "the greatest action hero currently working in film" and while she might merit the title of female James Bond, her Atomic Blonde suggests she's got even "more exciting ideas on the horizon".