Film director Michael Mann was born on February 5, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. He attained a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then later went to graduate school in London for Cinema. He began making commercials and then slowly progressed into the film industry. His first notable film would be the 1981 James Caan classic Thief. From then on his notoriety began to grow as he directed the films: The Last of The Mohicans, Heat, and The Insider. The 2009 Johnny Depp film Public Enemies was the last film that he directed before he took a several year break and then went on to direct the new Chris Hemsworth film entitled Blackhat.
Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) is a computer hacker who is in prison due to committing some very serious cyber crimes. When a terrorist hacks into a nuclear power plant and causes it to meltdown, Nicholas is released from prison to help track down the person responsible. Throughout this hunt, Nicholas travels all around the world while working with both American and Chinese government agents.
This is the absolute worse Michael Mann film that I have ever seen. To start with, the story and characters are so bland and uninteresting that it’s hard to believe that an actual person wrote the script. They aren’t B-movie characters, these are D-movie characters. Their dialogue is so bad that it sounds absolutely childish and almost incoherent at times. Also, they try to add a whole love story component throughout the film that is so incredibly unearned that it rises above the level of being completely forced. Simply put, I could care less if any character died at any point over the course of the film.
To add insult to injury, both the cinematography and audio work are absolutely atrocious. While I’m well aware of Michael Mann’s high-frame rate, blur style of cinematography; here it looks like he put entirely no effort into setting up his shots. Very frequently the camera goes in and out of focus and some of the action set pieces are framed in such a way that you can’t understand what is happening. It pains me to say that this is at the level of amateur filmmaker quality of cinematography. On top of all of that, the dialogue recording and re-recording is also done in a very lethargic way. Frequently you are unable to understand what actors are saying, at some points it sounds like several of the characters’ voices are dubbed even though they are speaking English, and lastly some of the re-recorded dialogue is shoved in between on-set dialogue and it’s completely apparent due to inconsistent volume levels. Altogether it feels like a completely muddled attempt at making a film.
When all is said and done, it’s hard to believe that Michael Mann could make a film as horrible as this. There is absolutely nothing reeming within this film even with the inclusion of Chris Hemsworth’s performance. I would not recommend for anyone to see Blackhat under any circumstances.
Blackhat:[usr 1]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1VGIHBgj45g]
About Blackhat
Synopsis: An imprisoned hacker must team up with the U.S. and Chinese goverment in order to stop a very dangerous terrorist.
Director: Michael Mann
Writer: Morgan Davis Foehl
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang, John Ortiz
Rated: R
Runtime: 133 mins
Releases: January 16, 2015
Just call me “Turbo” because it sums me up in a single word. I’m originally from Visalia, California but currently reside in Mesa, Arizona. I’m a movie and video game fanatic with a BA in Film and Media Production from ASU. I try to see every movie that I can (new and old) as well as play the latest video game releases. My goal in life would be to create a feature length film which viewers absolutely love. However, until then I love to entertain people with my 100+ voice impersonations as well as fill them in with the latest movie/ gaming news on Twitter. Facebook.com/turbizl, Twitter: @turbizl
