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.
Director: Michael Mann
Writer: Morgan Davis Foehl
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang | See full cast & crew »
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 nuclear power plant 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 lifeUser Reviews
Blackhat is the latest
from maverick director Michael Mann...it also happens to be his worst
film ever. Yes, I am even factoring in The Keep. It is THAT bad.
Starring Chris Hemsworth and Viola Davis, this film is a misfire and
criminally misuses a talented cast and a talented crew. Nick is a
furloughed convict trying to nail a destructive hacker who is damaging
the financial stabilities of countries all around the world. Now, on the
list of people better suited for this role, Chris Hemsworth shouldn't
even be on this list. Watching him as a hacker is as painful as watching
Adam Sandler in drag seduce Al Pacino. Working off a screenplay from
Morgan Davis Foehl, Mann seems to focus more on having the shakiest
hand-held cinematography not in a Paranormal Activity film than actually
telling a coherent story with good characters. And for those of you who
were expecting Michael Mann to deliver a film like Heat or The Insider,
you will walk away from this thoroughly disappointed. The action is
short, rare and very tame while the scenes that are attempting to
explain what the hell is going on are so convoluted, long and boring
that it creates a very uneven film that borders unwatchable. One of the
biggest gripes I have with this film is the cinematography. It is
entirely too shaky for a film like this and, on a serious note, reminded
me more of End of Watch. While that style fit End of Watch perfectly,
it doesn't fit this film. It doesn't make it look gritty, it just makes
it look painfully under-produced and underfunded. Overall, Mann's
Blackhat serves as one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory
considering the fact this is Michael Mann we're talking about here...the
guy who did Heat, Thief and Collateral. Unfortunately, if this is the
best Mann has to offer, I fear it is only going to get worse as time
goes on. Blackhat is underdeveloped, unrealistic, and filmed terribly.
Watcher beware!!!
