Blackhat (2014) Directed by Michael Mann. Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang. IMDB says: “April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Out-numbered, out-gunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.”
Blackhat is a film with an interesting premise. A cyber-attack takes down a nuclear power plant in china and then infiltrates the stock market. The only one who can rise to the level of this elite hacker is an imprisoned Blackhat hacker played by Chris Hemsworth. What follows is a coalition of American and Chinese officials working to bring him down. While the premise is intriguing, particularly amid current events with news of a cyberattack at a major institution coming almost weekly and the notorious Sony attack that resulted in the delayed opening of The Interview; the application of the concept is somewhat lackluster.
There is really not a lot to be praised in this film. I expected quite a bit more in the way of cinematography. There is an overuse, especially early on, of computer generated depictions of how electronics work, those scenes feel like a cheesy documentary you might watch on a tube TV in high school. The action throughout the film is well shot but feels oddly slow – it just isn’t well paced. The acting is at best, serviceable. I enjoyed Chris Hemsworth in Thor and I think he’s a solid actor in that type of film. Blackhat requires a bit more than just a good looking guy who can read lines off the script. I mean, realistically, if you picture in your mind right now the greatest hacker in the world, are you picturing Thor? The supporting cast is fine, nothing much to say in one direction or another.
The film spends a good chunk of time developing a love story between Hemsworth and the sister of the main guy working for the Chinese. I am almost always against these unnecessary love interests, especially when they do not further the plot. Honestly, the character played by Wei Tang is almost entirely unnecessary with the exception of the love story. This actually brings up a bigger issue in the film: the lack of character development. At no point in the film do you find out much of anything about the characters. The exposition of Hemsworth’s character is that he was in prison for doing something bad and he went to school with the character played by Leehom Wang, and they’re buddies. That’s literally the only background the film provides.
A film like this, with a very interesting, and timely theme needs to take time to build the characters. These should be people the audience cares about. We should understand why they are doing these jobs. The audience needs to be invested in what is happening on the screen and the action should compel them to be on the edge of their seat. That never happens in Blackhat. There isn’t a pivotal scene with suspense and drama. There isn’t an over-the-top action sequence. There aren’t any deep, complex characters for the audience to sincerely care about. There’s just nothing to love here, every single element is middle-of-the road. You’re not going to fall asleep watching this film, but you might ask yourself why not.
OVERALL SCORE: 40%