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'€˜Blackhat'€™: Mann'€™s flawed cyberthriller

Manhunt: Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth, left) and Lien (Tang Wei) trace a blackhat hacker from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia

Hans David Tampubolon (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, January 25, 2015

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'€˜Blackhat'€™: Mann'€™s flawed cyberthriller Manhunt: Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth, left) and Lien (Tang Wei) trace a blackhat hacker from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. (AP/Legendary Pictures) (Chris Hemsworth, left) and Lien (Tang Wei) trace a blackhat hacker from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. (AP/Legendary Pictures)

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span class="inline inline-none">Manhunt: Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth, left) and Lien (Tang Wei) trace a blackhat hacker from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. (AP/Legendary Pictures)

Michael Mann'€™s latest film, Blackhat, offers a strong start and exciting plot developments, but fumbles at the finale.

Mann, known as one of the best shooters in Hollywood, uses his expertise to make hacking look oh so sexy from the film'€™s first scenes, taking us deep inside computers to see what is happening in the digital universe during a hack.

It is a fun ride '€” and unique compared to other cyberthrillers that might only show puzzling binary code on the screen.

Blackhat (which refers to evil hackers '€” or crackers '€” who use their skills for evil, as opposed to the whitehats, or good hackers) features Chris Hemsworth, known for his role as Marvel'€™s Thor, as a Nicholas Hathaway, a cracker-turn-hacker who has the body of a superhero and an equally sophisticated brain.

Hathaway, a genius college dropout, is jailed for 15 years after he cracked the US banking system and stole millions. A nuclear reactor explosion far away in Hong Kong becomes the catalyst that drives Hathaway towards freedom far sooner than he has expected.

The explosion prompts Chinese cyber-crimes unit honcho Chen Dawai (Wang Leehom) to lobby the US to release Hathaway (his college roommate, by the way) so that he can track down the mastermind behind the incident.

Why? Apparently, the reactor was cracked using code written by Dawai and Hathaway. Huh.

After Wall Street is hit by the same cracker, the US releases Hathaway, teaming him up with federal agents Barrett (Viola Davis) and Jessup (Holt McCallany) to make sure that there is no funny business between Hathaway and the Chinese.

The team also includes Dawai'€™s little sister, Lien (Tang Wei), a supposedly genius hacker who spends most of her time in the movie emotionally disgruntled over Hathaway.

The crew then flies from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia to track down the bad guys.

Of course, it is an unlikely team-up. Hathaway and the Chen siblings have no problems in getting along, even after Dawai catches Hathaway in bed with Lien '€” and the G-Men are always suspicious.

Mann presents thrills and suspense with every button press and mouse click. The audience is made to believe that in a single second, the evil cracker can destroy the world by simply pressing '€œenter'€.

Eventually, Mann makes the audience fall in love with the agents, who then become more trusting towards Hathaway and the Chinese. But by doing this, Mann once again adds his signature touch: killing characters that are loved by the audience in ways that make viewers gasp.

By the film'€™s midpoint, Mann changes pace from a cyberthriller to a techwar piece, veering between geekery and full-blown action scenes. No more fiddling with digital data transfers: once the team is in contact with the cracker'€™s middleman in Hong Kong, it is hardcore shooting all the way.

The action is raw, dark and direct '€” with Mann eschewing Steadycams and deploying a musical score that makes the audience feel as if they are really involved in the shootings.

Up to this point, well, Blackhat is still okay. Although Mann drastically shifts gear, there is still some sort of logical reasoning behind it and excitement.

Later on, after revealing the cracker'€™s true plot, Hathaway and Lien are able to track down the location the cracker, which is the '€œBig Durian'€ '€” Jakarta, Indonesia.

During this final part of the movie, you cannot help but feel the patriarchal nature of the relationship between Hathaway and Lien.

Hathaway is the boss who works on developing the traps to catch the cracker, while Lien is just his Gal Friday.

Despite her hacking skills, Lien does nothing but follow his orders, going from one place to another at Hathaway'€™s command.

Mann'€™s authenticity is also in question during the scenes in Indonesia. Most of the locals are shown talking in Malaysian, not Indonesian.

For local audiences, that'€™s a gaffe that makes people think that director was lazy in his research.

The finale, a man-to-man face off between Hathaway and the cracker '€” a fat curly man of the type typically found roaming Jalan Jaksa with a backpack '€” is a fiesta of illogic.

Here we have two computer wizgeeks fighting and stabbing amid a crowd of hundreds as if they have been training in the martial arts for years.

Regardless of the chaos, almost everyone around ignores them until there is a shot fired. If Mann did his cultural research on Indonesia, he might have discovered that we would not hesitate to jump in whenever we see someone
being stabbed.

Blackhat might not be Mann'€™s finest work. A strong start and fine acting cannot save it from a descent into mediocrity the very end.

________________

Blackhat

Director: Michael Mann
Script: Morgan Davis Foehl, Michael Mann
Cinematographer: Stuart Dryburgh
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis
Production company: Legendary Pictures, Forward Pass
Run time: 133 mimnutes

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