Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Blackhat

Meh.  It's not that this movie is horrible, it's just so very so what.  Like what I would imagine a movie-by-numbers would look like.  Action sequence at minute fifteen?  Check.  Guy and girl sleep together at minute nineteen (seriously, due to what we have to assume is proximity and interconnecting parts rather than any established attraction to one another)?  Check.  But I think the greatest problem is that the filmmakers could have saved themselves some egg on their face had they simply looked up the difference between "increase" and "decrease".  [SPOILERISH ALERT ...but let's be honest, you're not going to be invested in this movie anyway, so knowing what's coming shouldn't alter your experience at all]  When the movie begins with a nuclear meltdown, you need to up your game for what the end stakes will be, not ... well, what these filmmakers did.  Even more heinous than decreasing the stakes in the plot,  these filmmakers actually neutralize (for the filmmakers:  neutralize means "remove" or "completely cancel out") the stakes by just repeating pretty much the same threat 20 minutes later.  "Oh no!  They've done x."  (fast forward 20 minutes) "Oh no!  They're going to ... do x ... again!"   The filmmakers obviously just wanted to make sure there was A reason - without any care whether or not it was a GOOD reason (cough movie-by-numbers cough) - for deadly hand-to-hand combat (between cerebral COMPUTER HACKERS, might I note) at minute one twenty.  Meh.  Verdict: Movie Rental If You Must.