Today’s quick review: Blackhat. When a cyber attack takes down a power plant in China, Captain Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang) of the PLA recruits his sister Lien (Tang Wei) and his college roommate Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), a convicted American hacker, to track down the criminal responsible. Following a trail of digital clues, the trio travels around the world to catch up with the hacker and prevent him from walking away with millions of stolen dollars.
Blackhat is an action movie and cyber thriller directed by Michael Mann. The story serves up a blend of conventional action and digital forensics, making for a solid thriller with a couple of good twists. The seriousness with which the movie treats its subject matter is a point in its favor, as is its willingness to throw hard setbacks at its characters. However, a slew of minor flaws keeps it from capitalizing on its strengths.
Blackhat tries too hard to be dramatic, which ends up costing it in other ways. Instead of concentrating its drama on the moments that matter, the movie tries to inject everything with tension, even its more mundane moments. This slows the pacing to a crawl and keeps the characters from having a chance to breathe. As such, the audience has no reason to invest in the character themselves, only the investigation they are a part of.
Blackhat is a decent pick when you are in the mood for a thriller, but its awkward pacing, lackluster character work, and overly dramatic presentation style keep it from flowing the way the best thrillers do. Those willing to put up with its foibles will find that it’s an unusually sober take on the cyber thriller genre, albeit one peppered with action. But thanks to its flaws, casual viewers will want to approach with caution.
For a more colorful crime movie about an ex-hacker getting back in the game, try Swordfish. For a lighter crime movie about digital crime, try Sneakers. For an action thriller with something of a similar flavor, try The Peacemaker. For a globe-trotting action thriller with a more sympathetic protagonist, try The Bourne Identity.
[5.4 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2717822/). I give it a 6.0 for a solid plot let down by an overly dramatic style.