Review of Blackhat (2015) by Jim O — 17 Jan 2015

"Blackhat" is a crime/hacker thriller about a world-famous computer hacker named Hathaway who is serving 13 years in federal prison for infiltrating national banks and siphoning the money to his own accounts.

A ruthless, cunning hacker is wreaking havoc on financial markets worldwide and even attacks a nuclear power plant's cooling system. A team of coding experts, including Hathaway, is assembled by the FBI to find clues in the hacker's RAT (Remote Access Tool) and coding that could lead to his apprehension.

The movie turns into a cat-and-mouse psychological thriller where Hathaway attempts to stay one step ahead of the nefarious hacker. Chris Hemsworth is electrifying in the film as Hathaway. He brings his usual bad-ass, sarcastic self to the role and is a pretty entertaining protagonist.

Sometimes the pacing of the film is uneven. It also appears to be low-budget, but since it's an indie, that is nothing surprising. Some parts of the plot drag, so I found it to be a decent directing job but nothing spectacular or note-worthy.

I thought this film differed from other psychological thriller in a high level of originality. A lot of technical jargon inherent to the trade of coding is used, but it is woven together in a way that is relatively discernible to the average viewer.

This movie is very gripping and takes viewers on a whirlwind ride of action ------------------------------------------------ B.