Review of Blackhat (2015) by Nathan E — 17 Jan 2015

I liked it okay. A thriller that has a lot going for it, but ultimately falls flat. The ending left me unsatisfied and wondering, "oh-kay...is that it?".

The most impressive thing about Blackhat was the seriousness and detail it put into the hacking, given everything an air of credulity not usually found in stories like these. One usually sees the hacker just typing feverishly on a keyboard and whatever they're hacking gets hacked. This film really gets into the code, literally.

Michael Mann's trademark switching between film and digital video throughout the movie was distracting, bizarre and ultimately unnecessary. The shaky-cam made it almost impossible to look at during some tense sequences.