Blackhat (2015) [Blu-ray]
Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Tagline: We are no longer in control
Set within the world of global cybercrime, Blackhat follows furloughed convict Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), and his American and Chinese partners as they hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta. As
Hathaway closes in, the stakes become personal as he discovers that the attack on a Chinese nuclear power plant was just the beginning. Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) directs the propulsive action-thriller.
Storyline: Nick Hathaway, an extremely talented hacker who has gone astray, finds his way out of a 15 year prison sentence when parts of a computer code he once wrote during his youth appears in a malware that triggered a
terrorist attack in a factory in China. This opportunity will reunite him with an old friend but will also put him in the middle of a power game between the American and Chinese government as well as an arch villain hacker whose identity he has to find if
he wants to keep his freedom and his life. Written by ithia2003
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, May 12, 2015 -- Michael Mann's most timely film may also be his least impressive. The acclaimed filmmaker's (The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Collateral)
cyber-crime Thriller Blackhat tackles the dangerous, and largely unseen, world of cyber terrorism and digital manipulation for personal gain, but it does so as soullessly as the machines that make it happen. Worse, the characters are nearly as
vapid and are practically vaporware in the larger scheme of things, shells full of promise and potential that fall victim to bad code, incompatibility, and generally sluggish performance. Silly but relevant computer analogies aside, Blackhat fails
to capture the imagination, playing with a heavy-handed procedural feel as it methodically and without passion maneuvers through basic genre trope, interspersed with glimpses of Mann magic, largely bay way of expertly staged and lifelike shootouts and a
general top-end exterior craftsmanship.
A computer hack brings down a Chinese nuclear reactor. The government is desperate to trace the perpetrators and is forced to work with the Americans who also suffered an attack but were able to divert it before disaster could strike. It is revealed that
a RAT -- Remote Access Tool -- served as the hackers' weapon of choice, and it's also revealed that it was written by a Chinese military officer named Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang) and an old acquaintance, the brilliant and now incarcerated Nicholas Hathaway
(Chris Hemsworth). Hathaway negotiates himself out of prison when his help is requested. Working with Dawai, Dawai's sister Chen Lien (Tang Wei), and FBI Agent Carol Barrett (Viola Davis), Hathaway pieces together a larger cyber scheme that puts
everyone's lives in danger.
Blackhat gradually loses steam as it pushes forward, starting strong with a fascinating blend of cyber terror meets the Fukushima meltdown in the opening minutes (complete with some almost comically dated-in-appearance digital effects depicting the
intimate ins-and-outs of circuit boards) and winding down in the buildup to the climax. The film certainly holds a base interest by way of its core story details, but every support element falls flat and plays with procedural, lifeless, stiff details
whereby the action stems from one of two avenues of entry: Mann's lifelike, but therefore visually dull, gunplay, and various bits of characters in front of computer monitors typing away and analyzing data -- bits of code, hidden messages -- that will
mean nothing to 99.99% of audiences, representing the worst of present-day technobabble that's more inaccessible than even the fictitious bits of gabbing nonsense that spills out of speakers in practically every episode of Star Trek. Worse, the
movie feels bloated and bogged down by needlessly involved character relationships, including a burgeoning romance that's the primary culprit in a frenzy of intersecting elements, none of which stand apart, and that result in a movie that's tone-deaf to
its own strengths, playing up secondary and ancillary bits rather than focusing on the meatiest and tastiest pieces, many of which are the beneficiaries of solid foundations but the victims of light exploration in favor of other trifling matters. There's
a fine movie buried deep inside Blackhat, but even a master manipulator like Michael Mann cannot overcome the bloatware that destroys the fun.
Just as disappointing is the collection of stiff, largely disinterested performances that range from empty to indifferent with very little spice or concern evident. That's partly due to the disappointingly dull and unimaginative characters but also an
obvious disconnect with the leads who all seem content to sleepwalk through the movie, whether at the keyboard, in a shootout, in bed together, or brainstorming the issues. None of the characters find any depth and none of the actors are, by extension,
given much with which to work. Chris Hemsworth's Hathaway is a stock computer genius who also happens to look like someone capable of portraying an alien deity who wields a powerful hammer. Hemsworth is just good enough to make the character feel
believable in his many purists, whether pounding the keyboard, pulling the trigger, or pleasing the lady, but there's an obvious disconnect with the rest of the character who is merely "man capable of doing what the plot requires" without presenting the
audience with adequate reason to care. All of the support performances are equally, if not more so, devoid of life. Viola Davis, for example, appears ready to take a nap in every scene. It's a tired, disconnected bunch that seems to realize the futility
of trying to work with characters who basically don't exist beyond the movie's core requirements.
Blackhat is easily the most disappointing and frustrating film in the otherwise good-to-brilliant Michael Mann canon. On one hand, the movie is timely and feels like it should be important, have something to say, offer something to get the audience
swept up in the very real dangers of behind-the-scenes hacking. With the flat characters, dull story, and failure to connect with the audience, it feels like the writers spent more time AFK than working on the script. Maybe Mann can release a patch
somewhere down the line in the form of a director's cut that tightens the movie, but as it is now it's bloatware with little in the way of substance to offer. Universal's Blu-ray release features good, but not great, video and audio. Supplements are few.
Rent it.
[CSW] -1.5- I agree with this reviewer:
This movie is so bad that I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with the storyline. It's not cohesive and it jumps around a lot. Then there's the acting. Chris Hemsworth does a horrible job of trying to pull off an American accent. The
chemistry with his love interest is non-existent and she's really hard to understand. This movie tried to be intelligent and current but it fell exceedingly short. To say that this movie is a realistic depiction of hackers would be calling them
exceedingly dumb - which they're not. This was a painful 2 hours of my life that I want back. To think Michael Mann (director) is responsible for The Last of the Mohicans and Heat and then he directed this garbage. I guess his age is really starting to
show or someone else dropped the ball.
[V4.0-A3.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box motion codes were available at the time of this rental although they are available now.
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