Cinematic Releases: Blackhat

Michael Mann's latest crime drama, Blackhat hits theaters this weekend.

"Didn't they tell you? I'm a god.
The god of thunder."
Cyber terrorism is not a threat to modern society. This movie is.

Michael Mann further proves his distaste for Hollywood standards with this week's release of Blackhat. The style he's been so feverishly working on for years comes to a dramatic head with the sheer and utter failure of his latest feature. 

In his long line of criminal offerings, Blackhat is the absolute worst and most self indulgent movie he's ever made. This will turn his die hard fans into his worst enemies. Blackhat is an overlong and densely muddled story that fails in every aspect. This concept of mixing miscast computer hackers with his signature flare for realistic action is one more massive step towards the end of Michael Mann's cinematic career. 

"Did you hear that noise?
I think Ridley and Michael are
hiding in one of these canisters.
Good riddance."
Blackhat looks like a cheap, made for cable movie that mixes terrible looking graphics work and a few short winded scenes of gun play. Unlike his Heat or Collateral, this feels like a stale copy of his other less succesful movie, Miami Vice. The epic music is there. The close proximity gunfights are there. The bloody violence is spattered about in little quantity. The continent jumping long shots are there. And the cast is given little to chew on with a screenplay that feels like it was mishandled by a five year old. 

As a fan of ALL his earlier works, I'm severely disappointed right now. Blackhat is symbolic of a director that constantly needs to convince audiences of his artistic independence and fortitude. Instead, he ends up creating even more detractors that despise his stylistic approach to a "mainstream" release. Other than a few cool looking fight scenes and another excellent soundtrack, Blackhat has little to offer. The film is long winded, boring, and consistently retreads familiar scenarios from Mann's other movies. 

"If we run fast enough, we can get
away from Mann and his awful ideas."
This is just another early year release that will be forgotten about in an instant. Much like Ridley Scott's last few movies, Blackhat shows all the signs of a once great director that's beginning to wither and decay. Honestly, it's hard to say this. But if you're a Mann follower like myself, you may want to just stay away from Blackhat. Stick with your memories of his former work because this is a mess of the highest order. From thoughtless casting and confusing plot points, Blackhat is the epitome of bad movie making brought to you by the man that made Heat

What planet am I living on?


-CG