Review of Blackhat (2015) by Phil P — 27 Feb 2015

"Can they get to the next stop before we get there?".

What a strange film, not only because of the idea that hackers look like 'Chris Hemsworth' but also the pacing, the quick cuts to the next destination, the obnoxiously loud gun battles. Very odd, if you ask me. Michael Mann the man that more or less started teh handy cam fight scenes movement in movies is back after 5 years out of the directing game with a spy thriller about hackers and stock market conspiracies.

It's the old - convict helps the FBI to find who's causing all the problems. This time as I said it's hacking a fairly timely topic given teh attacks on the various game networks among others. So you can say it gets points for that. It follows 'Hathaway' (Chris Hemsworth) a hacking expert who is drafted in to help teh FBI and Chinese Government track down those responsible for a spike in the stock market as well as something more physical. The problem is despite this being a very on the nose topic it's still difficult to make clacking of keyboards and over-used tech talk sound interesting.

There's a fair amount of travelling but the story always seems a couple of steps behind, it's often a slow burner with spurts of information that don't mean anything due to the aforementioned tech talk. Sure some of it makes sense but it's all very overly explained when it needs to simple, possibly a character involved in the investigation that's more on an average viewers level would have helped things.

There moments of action spread throughout using Mann's patented close and personal handy cam technique accompanied by booming gun-fire against the rattling of metal or echoes. Some it works for, others it doesn't feeling more obnoxiously loud than (like the underground tunnel) in the thick of things with the characters.

And for a thriller that questions things as it goes there are little moments of tension - other than an excellent one towards the end involving a swarm of people. Despite the mentioned excellent scene it's all under-cut by a uninteresting villain (in the end) that looks like 'The Dude' and a very anti-climatic epilogue.

At the end of the day clicking and clacking of mechanical keyboards and heavy detailed explanations aren't all that interesting because it gets in the way. There are moments of delight with a few great gritty and personal action sequences with guns blazing - as well as moments where tension is high. But it's story and characters don't do much, even throwing in a clichéd romance story for good measure - which doesn't seems natural. In the end it's just watch-able.