Red Sparrow Movie Review

Recently, I saw a discussion comparing Red Sparrow to Atomic Blonde (which Ozzy and I liked) and Salt (which we also liked), suggesting Red Sparrow was better than the former and perhaps as good as the latter. If you didn't like Atomic Blonde, though, it's easy to see how one might like Red Sparrow better; but since we liked both—well all three really—it's hard to draw a comparison there.

Red Sparrow just has a different feel to it. I can't put my finger on it other than to say it just felt more raw, more realistic than the other two.

And if IMDb ratings are anything to go by (I consider them but don't give them any real credence as to whether or not I'm going to like a movie), Salt is rated at 6.4, Atomic Blonde at 6.7 and Red Sparrow at 6.8 — which coincidentally, is the same rating Gorky Park currently has. (I'd recommend all of these movies, by the way.)

There were a few brutal scenes that might prove too much for the squeamish-at-heart, and one in particular that was borderline too much for the not-too-squeamish-but-still-a-little-sensitive-to-some-nasty-shit people, like me. And although most spy movies these days thrive on a recipe of sex and violence, the scenes in Red Sparrow felt more necessary to the plot, rather than gratuitous.

Lastly, in some movies you put up with a lot of slow-moving scenes, bleak scenery, monotonous speech with your eyes rolling in the back of your head waiting for something to happen... just for that big payoff at the end. But that wasn't the case with this movie.

On the same token, it wasn't inundated with nonstop action just to keep the attention of the easily distracted (that too, would be me); rather, the visuals, sounds, dialogue, etc. proved an effective vehicle to keep us entranced. I'm not going to say whether there were any plot twists or not, because that ruins it for some folks... suffice it to say, "I didn't see that coming. Or that. And that was a little bit of a surprise too."

Have you seen Red Sparrow yet? If so, what did you think?

I gave it a 7/10 on IMDb.