Blackhat is, in fact, an old-hat, formulaic masculine crime thriller laboriously coated with dazzling mirages of gorgeous hackers, crisp digital graphics and cinematography and poignantly relevant international cyber terrorism. Unfortunately for Michael Mann, the veneer of such hackwork ingloriously sands off fast from a cast of flat, dutiful archetypes and a pandering script (at one point, an FBI agent played by John Ortiz cuts into Viola Davis’ line of reasoning with a, “Look, don’t invoke 9/11 on me.”)
The movie opens with a faceless hacker smashing the “Enter” key on a keyboard. We follow the consequences of those orchestrated keystrokes through a punishingly long animation of computer circuits and communicating electric signals, in which Mann sought to convey the physics and anatomy of the hack that launched a thousand ships. The hack was a worm programmed to burrow into the systems of a Chinese nuclear reactor and cause a deadly meltdown, seemingly inspired by the 2010 events of Stuxnet.
China’s PLA calls upon cyber security protégé Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang), and he heads over to LA to join the FBI on a special task force headed by Carol Barret (Viola Davis); a similar attack was used on Wall Street to jack up the prices on soybeans futures. As he broods handsomely over the villain’s code, he discovers remnants of code he co-wrote with his roommate at MIT: Nick Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), a criminal hacker incarcerated for stealing money from banks. Chang helps boot Hathaway out of prison and adds his expertise to the team, while also recruiting a network engineering genius in his little sister Chen Lien (the beautiful and talented Wei Tang of Lust, Caution.)
In an early scene, Dawai interrupts an FBI agent’s presentation on the malicious code; the agent praises the code as being “Lean and elegant … frenetic,” before Dawai bites in: “Frenetic? It’s overwritten.” This exchange summarizes my entire opinion of this film.
Mann resurrects a queasicam aesthetic, forced in to intensify action sequences and add a bit of the documentary style to this potentially probable parable of cyberterrorism. There was such a bloated amount of this stylistic gymnastics — it only served to annoy, rather than inspire, the wonder Mann was probably trying to wring out of the story and its audience.
The love story between Tang and Hemsworth was touching, but devoid of substance; their sensuality realized in broad, hasty strokes. A POV shot of Hemsworth’s male gaze slathered upon his love interest sitting in a taxi cruising the Los Angeles twilight felt particularly passé. After their first kiss, the computer-genius sister is disappointingly more inclined to be seen in Hathaway’s bed than at a computer being a genius. And Hemsworth, perhaps plagued by his role as good-guy Thor, was utterly stiff and unbelievable as a noir hacker.
The movie managed to prod at some redeeming considerations. The script mines a bit of drama out of the FBI’s hesitance and anxiety at cooperating with Captain Chang, for fear of sharing and/or surrendering U.S. technology to China. And most of Hathaway’s more deviant hacks don’t even rely on sophisticated code, but rather occur as a result of simple human negligence (both by the FBI and a receptionist of an elite bank.) Such observations will lead audiences to ponder just how vulnerable we really are to cybercrimes today; but the film failed to effectively capitalize on the gravity of such issues.
2.5 out of 5 stars
Rated R. Directed by Michael Mann. Staring Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang. Now playing.
