I was surprised how much better this move was than I expected.

Expected a typical, off the rack spy movie with predictable twists and turns, too much violence, car chases and gratuitous nudity. For the most part, Red Sparrow rises above all that.

There are several flaws in the story that broke my concentration. I will not spoil it for you, but some scenes are grossly unbelievable when the previous scene is considered.

Another issue I have is whether there is some pandering to anti-Eastern Europe bigotry that Americans are too quick to ignore. This movie is reminiscent of the Cold War era depiction of Russia, Eastern Europe and the struggle America had with dealing with them. The plot was too simple in that regard, almost lazy. I would have preferred for that philosophical rivalry to have been better explored/explained to really make this movie stand out from the rest.