A furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta (www.imdb.com).
Director: Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider, Collateral)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang, Leehom Wang, Andy On
Michael Mann is back in the director's seat after 6 years off the scene. 2009's Public Enemies did not receive the reception it desired. We expect a lot from the man. Blackhat is no exception. It opens with a camera panning and zooming around circuit boards of a computer. The user is doing his or her business, intent on doing no good. It doesn't seem like much, but it emphasises the rush and the adrenaline not expected with computer hacking and nerds. Hemsworth's main man, Nick Hathaway, is out of prison to help find a cyber-criminal whose intentions are unclear. One sentence sums up his past. Not enough for us to feel his pain. Hemsworth seems like an odd choice for this role but he more than stands on his own two feet. Crimes in the cyber world are elusive and ambiguous. It's only known to those who've studied computing, so it's easy to get lost in the technical mumbo-jumbo. Thankfully a tight script and astute acting help us with our ignorance. What Mann excels in is turning the mundane into something utterly engaging. Blackhat sounds boring on the outside. It's easy to get lost in the technical mumbo-jumbo and all the keyboard tapping, but throw in some of Mann's signature gun battles and a host of physicality you'll find a few treats to appreciate.
4/5
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