Blackhat (2015)

I really wanted to like this movie. A hacking thriller on an international scale -- what a hot subject that is great to bring to the silver screen! Throw in some Chris Hemsworth and I'm in! I was a huge fan of Hackers in the 90s and was really excited to see what a 2015 blockbuster and director would bring to a story that is straight from today's headlines!

Set in the world of Global Cybercrime, Blackhat follows a convict (played by Chris Hemsworth) and some American Chinese partners as they hunt a high level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta. Blackhat is so bad from the first minute its hard to even begin with this movie. I wanted to leave the entire time.

Spoiler here we get to see really two hacks in this movie and don't get me wrong these two types of hacks are used a lot and have a lot of success. But the first hack we see is a phishing attack on an NSA Cyber Security person. Hathaway sends the man an email from his supervisor telling him he needs to change his password due to him having dealt with the U.S./Chinese team and the email has a short cut to change his password. Guess what he does? Yep. Clicks the link which happens to be hiding a keylogger in it which grants Hathaway access to the system the team needs to put some information together.


In the first hour of the film, things were moving very slow. Action scenes were rare, even when there were action scene, it was predictable and I can honestly say it was sub par. The team were chasing the criminals, shooting each other near the port and the way it was directed was indeed a B movie. I expected more as Michael Mann was the director who has directed so many other great films before this.

As an Indonesian, I was hoping the movie will inspire or show the wonderful side of Indonesia and a lot new hacking things which blow would my mind. but all i get is wtf moment.

If the movie does anything right, it's the use of setting and cinematography. Michael Mann has a certain style which produces an authentic feel of any place the characters play in. Some scenes extenuate the long pace with unbridled view of buildings and the city. Unfortunately, with such thin substance it feels like a long boring drive at best.

5.6/10-IMDb
31%-Rotten Tomatoes
49/100-Metacritics
4/10-Mine