Director Michael Mann returns to direct Thor's Chris Hemsworth and cast in this gritty, if confusing, spy techno-thriller - Blackhat. Hemsworth plays hacker Hathaway, released from prison on the promise that he will use his set of skills to track down a hacker who has been gaining financially from the stock markets. Of course, as Hathaway and co look deeper into the mystery there is a bigger plan at work.
I found the movie itself very distracting as there was a lot of wobbly camera work and extreme close ups of the characters. Some of the editing was confusing too - one minute they are in America the next they are flying to Hong Kong for some reason. The reason is revealed once they are there and it all makes sense. Hathaway is released from prison on the pretence that he helps the authorities track down this other hacker genius and is on tag - a very lenient tag that enables him to traipse around the world. I'm sure, if that was in England, he wouldn't get much past his front door. Most of the movie is focussed around Hathaway and his friend from college Chen Dawai (who happens to be both a computer whizz and an agent for the authorities) and the sister of his friend who is a rather stubborn but very beautiful Chinese lady called Chen Lien.
The tension between Hathaway and Lien is so obvious from the offset that it's no surprise when they end up getting together. One of the most random moments in the movie is where her brother opens the door and finds them in bed together and says that they need to get a move on as the bad guy is making his move. As Hathaway and Lien pull their clothes back on, in the next scene, when they are in a helicopter, Hathaway and Dawai talk as if the previous scene had never happened and is asking if they are together. The dude just saw them in bed together! Why did he have to ask?!
Still, the movie is a decent enough attempt at the espionage, hacker techno thriller, but it could have been so much better. I have a lot of respect for Chris Hemsworth but although his acting wasn't bad I still see him as Thor, as a super hero, as a rough and tumble sort. In this he plays a hacker and his physique, looks and general demeanour don't lend to well to this role and it's asking a lot to believe that's who he is. There is only one scene where he is involved in hand to hand combat and handles himself really well - and that seems to fit him. The rest of the movie he is running from place to place avoiding gunfire and relying on other people to do the fighting. Although it makes it more realistic I guess, I think making this movie with him as some sort action hero might have made it a lot more exciting. Still, that's not the movie it's supposed to be.
The tension between Hathaway and Lien is so obvious from the offset that it's no surprise when they end up getting together. One of the most random moments in the movie is where her brother opens the door and finds them in bed together and says that they need to get a move on as the bad guy is making his move. As Hathaway and Lien pull their clothes back on, in the next scene, when they are in a helicopter, Hathaway and Dawai talk as if the previous scene had never happened and is asking if they are together. The dude just saw them in bed together! Why did he have to ask?!
Still, the movie is a decent enough attempt at the espionage, hacker techno thriller, but it could have been so much better. I have a lot of respect for Chris Hemsworth but although his acting wasn't bad I still see him as Thor, as a super hero, as a rough and tumble sort. In this he plays a hacker and his physique, looks and general demeanour don't lend to well to this role and it's asking a lot to believe that's who he is. There is only one scene where he is involved in hand to hand combat and handles himself really well - and that seems to fit him. The rest of the movie he is running from place to place avoiding gunfire and relying on other people to do the fighting. Although it makes it more realistic I guess, I think making this movie with him as some sort action hero might have made it a lot more exciting. Still, that's not the movie it's supposed to be.
Although this is about as far away from the Avengers as you can possibly get it still made me chuckle when at some point in the movie one of the characters mentioned that they should "hammer down" - I'm not sure if that was supposed to be an in-joke or not. And secondly, more brazenly, Hathaway hacks a program called Black Widow. I'll leave it at that.
Overall, it's a fairly bog standard thriller with nothing amazingly good about it, but nothing amazingly bad about it either. It's decent enough to pass the time if you fancy something a little different. Massive kudos to Chris Hemsworth though for trying something different - when his time as Thor is up he will need to do other stuff and it's good to try other projects.
Blackhat is rated 15 and is showing at all good cinemas now.
Blackhat is rated 15 and is showing at all good cinemas now.
POPSCORE: 6/10
SECOND OPINION:
Chris came to see it with me and he says:
Blackhat is a somewhat taut thriller which does tend to loosen up in places, however there are just enough twists and explosions to keep seasoned filmgoers interested. An excellent first-date type movie, it was directed by Michael Mann (director of the 1st ever Hannibal Lecter movie Manhunter) and some excellent scoring by Harry Gregson Williams.
Verdict? 6-7 out of 10. Stylish and appealing, some room for improvement regarding plot and suspense but Hemsworth does a good job in taking himself away from his Thor typecast showing he can act and pull off the looks that certain scenes require. - POPSCORE: 6-7/10
What am I talking about? Blackhat the movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.blackhatmovie.co.uk/
If you liked this try: Hackers (the one with Angelina Jolie from the 1990's), Swordfish, The Net
No comments:
Post a Comment