Wesley Emblidge ‘17 / Emertainment Monthly Assistant Movies Editor Chris Hemsworth in Blackhat. Photo Credit: Universal Pictures.
Even if you’ve never seen a Michael Mann movie, chances are you’ve seen one influenced by his. Whether it was an action movie that took pointers from his hyper-stylized cop show Miami Vice or a movie shot on digital cameras like he famously pioneered with Collateral, Mann’s film and television work have had a big impact much of cinema. Yet as of late, the filmmaker behind Heat and The Insider has been in a much less successful period, with critically reviled box office flops like Public Enemies and Miami Vice (the film) and his HBO show Luck being cancelled. His latest is the hacking thriller Blackhat, and sadly it does little to reinvigorate the director’s career.
After a factory in China is hacked and goes into a meltdown, agent Chen Dawai and his sister (Lust, Caution stars Leehom Wang and Wei Tang) recruit the help of FBI agent Carol Barrett (Viola Davis) to help them track down the hacker. But there’s one man they need: convicted hacker Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), who also happens to be Dawai’s former roommate. Through various maneuvering they get him out on a furlough to help them track the hacker down, but as the twists and turns come Hathaway quickly takes the lead in stopping the hacker before he does even more damage. Chris Hemsworth and Wei Tang in Blackhat. Photo Credit: Frank Connor/Universal Pictures.
There’s a lot of laughable plotting in Blackhat; forget the action clichés or the fact that Thor himself is playing a hacker here, just look at the lifeless romance he has with Dawai’s sister that is shoved in without any real setup. Tang doesn’t really bring much to the role- she and Hemsworth have no chemistry at all- but then again the role doesn’t bring much to her. There are lots of elements like this that don’t really work but are “necessary” just to move the plot forward.
But forget all that, because a master filmmaker can turn even the worst script into something interesting. This time around though, Mann is not that man, he’s flat-out inconsistent. Shot by The Piano cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, certain shots are gorgeous but many are the ugliest and laziest images that these digital cameras Mann pioneered can produce. One early shootout scene is completely incoherent and poorly edited, a later one is wonderfully visceral and exciting. You can say that for Blackhat at least: it improves. But should we really be saying that about the work of a veteran like this? Wei Tang and Chris Hemsworth in Blackhat. Photo Credit: Universal Pictures.
By deciding to make an exciting movie about hacking, you’re already giving yourself a challenge: how do we make the hacking itself exciting? David Fincher might be the only one I’ve seen pull this off, and even that was in the non-action movie The Social Network, and all just with editing and music. Mann takes a more extreme approach; he goes inside the computer with some cheesy graphic sequences that go on far too long. The first of these is the opening shot, so you sort of know what you’re in for from the beginning.
What works in Blackhat? Besides the occasional sequence, shot or joke that actually lands, not a whole lot. There’s a sloppiness to the whole film (even the sound mix seems off) that just doesn’t feel like Michael Mann, it feels more like one of the many lesser filmmakers that have drawn from his work over the years. Overall Grade: C-
