Blackhat (**)
Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei,
Viola Davis Ritchie Coster, Holt McCallany, Yorick van Wageningen, Leehom Wang
Seen: March 9th 2015
** Out of ****
Blackhat is a technological thriller
from the director who brought us such fantastic movies as The Last of the
Mohicans, Heat, and Collateral. In Blackhat though, we see only momentary
glimpses of the greatness behind those movies, which are easy to miss as the
movie is so slow-moving that their punctual nature are more likely to surprize
you out of a lull in concentration than they are to energize you. The movie is
boring and it’s too late in coming to the hacker-creating-global-havoc party.
It doesn’t have much more to say either, the hacker plot is all of it, and it carries
nothing like Collateral’s message of disconnect from those around us or Heat’s
message of love overcoming a self-imposed rule of non-attachment. Along with
that, Blackhat is only marginally successful as a techno-thriller, as its
visual impact, however modern, is wasted on all but the most knowledgeable – few
will know what current technology looks like when zoomed in on and few will
care about lines of code running across a screen as actors stare at it
intently.
Blackhat starts with a nuclear reactor
in Hong Kong overheating and exploding, leaving in its wake death and
destruction. It is revealed that the plant was hacked and the only one to
figure out how is Captain Chen Dawai (Wang), a member of a Chinese Cyber
Warfare Unit, who recognises some of the code in the remote access tool (RAT) used
for the attack. He gets an interview with FBI Agent Carol Barrett (Davis) and informs
her that he, together with American prisoner Nick Hathaway (Hemsworth),
developed the RAT when they were college roommates. Hatahway is granted a furlough
to assist with the case, and soon enough Hathaway, Dawai, and Dawai’s sister
Chen Lein (Wei), together with FBI Agent Barrett are tracking the seemingly
random hacking attacks, trying to figure out the next target while eluding The
Boss’ (van Wageningen) ruthless mercenary, Kassar (Coster).
A few exhilarating and succinct yet volatile
shootouts serve as visual reminder that Mann directed Heat while some quick chases
and ferociously effective hand-to-hand fights vaguely remind of Collateral, and
in these short scenes I found myself brutally entertained, even if it was for a
combined total of only about five minutes of the movie’s entire running time. Some
action scenes are filmed in shaky-cam, and while luckily not nearly enough to
bring on nausea, they do nothing to enhance the urgency and are somewhat
distracting.
Chris Hemsworth is a dashing hero, and
does what he can with the material; meaning we see a lot of him looking at a
screen trying to figure out how to stop the villain or gazing into the distance
guessing at a motive. When he is required to fight or move he is believable as
a violently effective combatant, and with Ritchie Koster’s viscious Kassar it’s
definitely required now and then.
Blackhat is only for those who are
well-rested and prepared for a movie that’s far slower than could reasonably be
expected from trailers and advertising. Even then it would be a stretch though,
as the movie could easily have been cut by over 30 minutes into a more
streamlined telling of, despite plot complications, a relatively
straight-forward story. I expected a much better thriller than Blackhat delivered,
and I only hope no-one else falls for its marketing.
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