Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Wei Tang, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany, Andy On, Ritchie Coster, Christian Borle, John Ortiz, Yorick van Wageningen, Brandon Molale, Danny Burstein, Archie Kao, Abhi Sinha, Jason Butler Harner, Manny Montana, Spencer Garrett, Shi Liang, Kan Mok.
There are films that offer so much in the small afforded time that a trailer entices you with that it’s possible to get caught up in the hype and growing excitement that comes along with every new release. The trouble with that at times is that it can lead you down the path of slighted and unrealistic expectation, the trailer never quite matching up to the heights you already have played out in your imagination.
Chris Hemsworth’s latest film away from the ongoing and ever flourishing Avengers series of films, the promising on paper but delivered with the hiss of a burst balloon at a child’s birthday party, Blackhat, is a film that you want to enjoy, that the film lover craves to take home to meet their parents and plan the future of cinema around, is instead on closer inspection someone you wouldn’t ask out a second date without a first being sure they were at least going to smarten up their act and learn a few jokes with the space out their meandering office talk.
Blackhat is no Rush, of that there can be no comparison, neither should it be compared with the forthcoming In The Heart of the Sea, both of which have encapsulated and framed Mr. Hemsworth to the rightful place of leading man and arguably the best actor of his generation to come from that corner of the Southern Hemisphere and equal to Geoffrey Rush and the great Sam Neill. Blackhat though is an average escapist drama, even if it does labour the point somewhat of running a good thirty minutes over what would have made it more complete and fulfilling. When you’re over stuffed because of eating more food at a sitting than you are used to and each morsel has been satisfying, the thought of a free desert being shoved down your throat is enough to make you groan in displeasure. Such is the fate of a film that doesn’t quite know how to end after beckoning the audience in with a great opening.
Surely the point of a great film, piece of music, relationships, or a book is to leave you wanting more, needing every fix possible. It is the difference between great and the norm, between eye bulging immense and the acceptable and the tolerable afternoon session between other things.
Blackhat has many things going for it, it also has so much it could lose but for Chris Hemsworth it is yet another vehicle that keeps him in the public gaze ahead of future releases. For anybody else, cinematography aside, you do have to wonder if the film might have benefited from their exclusion.
Blackhat isn’t old hat, but neither does it live up to the scrutiny of expectation. Some films are just not big enough to cope with what they offer.
Ian D. Hall