Title – Blackhat (2015)

Director – Michael Mann (Heat)

Cast – Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Wei Tang

Plot – Computer hacker Nick Hathaway (Hemsworth) is released from his prison sentence to help the Government track down a mysterious hacker who has recently attacked Wall Street and a nuclear power plant.

 “This isn’t about money. This isn’t about politics. I can target anyone, anything, anywhere”

Review by Eddie on 26/05/2015

A turkey of Thanksgiving sized proportions, Michael Mann’s newest thriller Blackhat is a tremendous failure that is so utterly devoid of any personality or life that it’s no wonder it came and disappeared from cinemas faster than a speeding bullet when it hit cinemas in the USA and appeared in Australia as a direct to DVD non-event.

It’s hard to properly explain just how downright boring Blackhat actually is. It’s 2 hours plus of a convoluted and uninteresting catch a killer scenario that never once gets out of first gear and eventually ends on such a whimper that this is surely a production that marks a sad career low for usually imaginative and reliable Michael Mann who has made a longstanding career out of white knuckle thrillers and created his own unique brand of visuals.

Blackhat features none of what makes standout Mann films like The Insider, Heat or Collateral such blasts of fresh air and it seems as though Mann struggled to find his creative mojo in amongst a story that is in dire need of a more interesting narrative anchor or a single character that we can care about and in the end not even Mann’s usual behind the camera winnings get a play through. It’s possible that Mann struggled with the complexities of making computer hacking exciting but that is no real excuse considering there have been similar films that deal with this new age terror threat in a much better way.

Not helping this weak and uninvolving story is that fact that Blackhat showcases a previously unseen weak side to Australian ex-pat Chris Hemsworth who in charisma filled turns as Thor or great dramas like Rush has shown much promise, but here struggles with both accent and a character we never believe. Unintended laughs will be had when watching Hemsworth battle it out over internet code and when his Nick takes matters into his own excessively violent hands the film almost becomes unwatchable in its awkwardness.

As a fan of Mann’s work and good thrillers in general I was willing to give Blackhat a fair shot, even after it has been derided overseas, but upon inspection I found a soulless film that fails in almost every single department. There is one recommendation however, if one is currently struggling to get to sleep, then Blackhat is your answer, in what is a sleep inducing thriller thats remarkable for its failure to ever raise the pulse above a coma level.

1 computer hacking God of Thunder out of 5