Review of Blackhat (2015) by Chris S — 27 May 2015

Im confused... Did I just watch a Michael Mann film? It says he produced and directed it, but I cant seem to find any traces of his craft anywhere. Oh there are some blue bits... And thats about it. Blackhat, stars Chris Hemsworth, as this super hacker, incarcerated by the FBI for his felonies and forced to live out a 13 year sentence.

That is until one day, some IT nutcase decides to blow up a Chinese nuclear reactor and the Chinese send their best man, he goes by the name of Chris Hemsworths pal, he and his sister, who both happen to be expert hackers, then fly to America, discover that the code used to blow up the reactor was half his and half Hemsworth's, cause they were buddies in college, and he manages to not only get clearance to allow Hemsworth out of jail, he allows him to basically become a spy and bang his sister at the same time.

But shit gets personal and soon Hemsworth becomes Jason Bourne and it turns out a massive plot is underway to blow something up, somewhere in the middle of nowhere... Can you tell I didnt like this movie, I hated it.

It made little to no sense, story wise everything is so coincidental or achievable. It takes Hemsworth's pal, about 3 sentences to get this "Threat" out of jail, with minimal security, despite being locked up for a while, Hemsworth is completely all over the latest hacking and computer equipment.

He just happens to well fall in love with his sister for the sake of it, there is next to no relationship building. He can fire guns, hop walls, work out secretive plans that the FBI struggle to even fathom and he can kick the shit out of people to no end.

I thought he was a computer hacker? Not that i'm saying computer hackers arent capable of achieving some of these goals, but all of them, in the space of a week? really? I dont buy it. neither do I buy any performance in this apart from Hemsworth, even then his character is written so piss poorly, it hurts.

Note Mann didnt actually write the script, so cue woeful dialogue and stereotypical shit from the get go. Visually the movies a disaster, Michael Mann is best known for 2 things visuals and characters, this film has neither, sorry this film fails at both.

The look of this film is bland, boring, devoid of colour, texture and feeling. There is little to no emotion, everythings muggy and convieniant. It's not gritty, its not polished, its not special, its just typical grade F stuff.

Honestly i've seen film students fire out something glossier than this. There is no love or passion in this film. The film is far too long, its boring, predictable, overly conveinant to the point of no return and ran completely on Hemsworths terms.

Thats right, this entire films story runs on a Hacker out on bail's terms. Any confrontation is dealt with in a second. Barely anyone challenges him, he just walks about telling people what to do.

Going all Taxi Driver and trying his best James Bond impersonation from time to time. It also saddens me to see Mann replicate a lot of moments from previous films, a fleeing couple on an underground train, a group of detectives working out they have been conned in a big open space, the lets have a massive bloody shoot out from all of my previous scenes, hes not even paying homage to his own work, cause here it just feels like the writer is and Mann's either too bored or out of options to go against it.

The sound department should be shot, the score is great, hats off to atticus ross and harry gregson williams, but the actual sound is ametuer at best. There are countless times when the films dead air will just cut, leaving us wondering if someone muted the television.

It is that piss poor on pretty much every level. It gets 2 stars because, even though its terrible, it is crafted by a man that knows how to craft a film, so it just about runs as a piece of entertainment.

If this is the future for Michael Mann, I really want him to quit while he is ahead and just forget this film ever happened.