Blackhat

For F*** Magazine

BLACKHAT 

Director : Michael Mann
Cast : Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Wang Leehom, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany
Genre : Crime/Thriller
Run Time : 133 mins
Opens : 15 January 2015
Rating : NC-16 (Scene of intimacy and some coarse language)

Following the scandalous, crippling hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, cybercrime is back at the forefront of public consciousness. Director Michael Mann brings us Blackhat, purporting itself to be a techno-thriller for a post-Snowden world. A cyber-attack sabotages a Chinese nuclear power plant, causing a catastrophic meltdown. Chinese cyber-security expert Captain Chen Dawai (Wang) concludes that in order to catch the perpetrator, Chinese and American authorities must call on the expertise of convicted hacker Nicholas Hathaway (Hemsworth). Chen, alongside his sister Lien (Tang) and FBI Special Agent Carol Barrett (Davis) cross the globe in pursuit of the cybercrime syndicate responsible, travelling from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta.

            Cybercrime, a globe-trotting hunt, a furloughed convict aiding the authorities, geopolitics – it all sounds pretty exciting. Therefore, it’s a shame that Blackhat ends up being pretty dull. It’s not a poorly-made film, just a boring one. Even with the requisite shootouts and chases, Blackhat never fully grabs hold of the audience. There are some surprises, even a few thrills, but each step forward in the plot feels merely perfunctory. Techno-thrillers are an interesting genre because those films often feel really dated really quickly and are mocked for their Hollywood-ised depiction of hacking – try sitting through Hackers or The Net with a straight face. It is after watching Blackhat that we realise a “realistic hacking movie” just isn’t all that entertaining a proposition, and this is something that should’ve been a foregone conclusion.

Hemsworth isn’t exactly believable as a hacker – we get that the film wants to step away from the image of the hoodie-clad teenager with thick coke-bottle glasses but Hemsworth never quite sells it. Part of the appeal of his portrayal of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that he’s not the brightest of the Avengers, which only seems fair because he has, arguably, the most impressive physique. Call us insecure, but we refuse to believe anyone would have the brains to go with all that brawn.

            One thing the film has going for it is the Asian characters do not feel forced into the story in an obvious bid for international appeal *ahem*Transformers: Age of Extinction*ahem*. They are integral to the plot and are not depicted in a stereotypical manner. Wang Leehom acquits himself reasonably well and we’d be all for American audiences becoming familiar with his handsome mug. Tang Wei struggles more, her line delivery rather stilted. There’s a forced romantic subplot between her character and Chris Hemsworth’s, which feels all the more unnecessary because they have practically no chemistry together. Viola Davis is the same no-nonsense boss lady she usually portrays. Singaporeans might get a kick out of seeing a well-known local actor in a minor supporting role.

            In addition to being middle-of-the-road all the way through, Blackhat just isn’t that pretty of a film to look at either. Michael Mann has drawn flack for shooting in the digital format with sometimes cheap-looking results and there certainly is no shortage of noise-filled night scenes in Blackhat. Mann also favours handheld close-up shots, which can be slightly nausea-inducing. During a brawl in a restaurant, the film goes into full-on shaky-cam mode, standing in stark contrast to some pleasant sweeping aerial establishing shots.

This reviewer was looking forward to Blackhat and was puzzled to find out it had been given a January release date, since it didn’t quite look dump month-worthy. Now, he has a bit of an idea why. There is a novelty factor in seeing Southeast Asian locales featured so prominently in a Hollywood flick and unlike many films where hacking is tantamount to sorcery, Blackhat never lapses into the realm of the all-out ridiculous. However, coming from the acclaimed director of The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Heat and Collateral, Blackhat is a let-down, continuing Mann’s disappointing streak, seeing as how Miami Vice and Public Enemies weren’t great either. At least “Blackhat” works a lot better than the movie’s working title “Cyber”.

Summary: It could’ve been a breathless, high-stakes chase across continents but instead, Blackhat is plodding, boilerplate and decidedly average.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Ender's Game

For F*** Magazine

ENDER'S GAME

Director: Gavin Hood

Cast:         Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis, Nonso Anozie, Stevie Ray Dillmore, Andrea Powell, Moises Arias, Conor Carroll, Aramis Knight, Brandon Soo Hoo

Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure

Run Time: 114 mins

Opens: 7 November 2013

Rating: PG

           These days, nothing quite gets a movie studio excited like the F word – “franchise”. Hollywood honchos hanker for the next Marvel cinematic universe, the next Star Wars, Fast and Furious or Twilight. Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the sparkly vampire chronicles, has found a property with the potential for aggressive expansion: the Ender Saga or the “Enderverse”, a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card which were, well, a game-changer.

            Following an attack on earth by insectoid alien invaders known as “Formics”, a battle school is established to train the next generation of International Fleet cadets for when the Formics strike again. Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) is a particularly promising student who is earmarked by Col. Hyrum Graff (Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Davis) as a potential leader of earth’s military forces. Ender’s siblings, Valentine (Breslin) and Peter (Jimmy Pinchak) failed to make it through the program, so as if the pressure of the fate of the world being in his hands wasn’t enough, Ender has to cope with that. An integral part of the training is the game of the title; a kind of zero-gravity strategy-based amalgam of football and laser tag. Ender has to contend with being bullied, but finds friendship in the form of Petra Arkanian (Steinfeld), one of the few female students in battle school. Ender soon finds himself among the cream of the crop and studying under war hero Mazer Rackham (Kingsley) as the clock ticks away to the next invasion.

            The novel Ender’s Game, expanded from a short story of the same name, was published in 1985. The book and its sequel Speaker for the Dead clinched the Hugo and Nebula awards, two of the most prestigious honours in science fiction. A film adaptation has been in the works for many years, with The Phantom Menace’s Jake Lloyd considered for the title role at one point. The book is regarded as something of a modern classic and perhaps film franchises centred on young characters, like the Harry Potter movies, paved the way for this adaptation to finally get off the ground.

            The premise of using games and simulations in preparation for war proved prescient, seeing as how video game technology has been co-opted into military training over the last decade or so. The film focuses on the process of the practise and trials leading up to combat instead of the battle itself, so writer-director Gavin Hood has the responsibility of making sure certain stakes and a sense of danger are still established and that viewers will be interested in seeing the games played out instead of yelling “get to the real fighting already!” at the screen. He is somewhat successful in this regard, but the film’s pacing is uneven and jittery and there is a fair bit of exposition and backstory to get out of the way in its first half. Also, pretty much every “boot camp” or “military school” trope from the movies finds its way into Ender’s Game.

            Big-budget spectacle and sci-fi action razzle dazzle is a lot more accessible to today’s audiences than before. That’s another way of saying moviegoers have become harder to impress. Ender’s Game is not a badly-designed movie by any standard, it’s just that its world of space stations, futuristic dorm rooms, grey uniforms and termite mound-style enemy terrain carries a sense of familiarity with it and doesn’t pack quite enough punch to pull one into the world. The film’s major action sequences take place within the battle room, the balletic zero-gravity sequences well-choreographed and stunt coordinator Garrett Warren’s wire-work innovations making the scenes suitably dynamic. It’s a shame this film comes right on the heels of Gravity, which will be hard to top.

 

            Asa Butterfield is a competent lead, playing Ender not as a know-it-all whiz or an insufferable adult-kid but as a “chosen one” who just has to deal. Hailee Steinfeld is very likeable as Petra and the moments in which she and Ender train together are welcome respite from the harshness of the battle school environment. A role like Hyrum Graff is best handled by an actor of stature and who has a sci-fi pedigree and Harrison Ford certainly fits the bill. Sure, there’s a lot of the scowling and looking grumpy typical of Ford’s recent career, but he’s able to bring out some layers, the character not just an authority figure but a manipulative and canny one at that. Ben Kingsley, sporting facial Tā moko Māori tattoos, is only in this for the last section of the film and doesn’t get too much to do, but he’s good.

            Ender’s Game will give teen audiences something to chew on and it is good to see a film aimed at this demographic that isn’t pointless and inane. Sure, the tackling of issues such as ethics in war and theme of empathy vs. violence may come off as clumsy or heavy handed, but at least they were given some attention. The film’s most intriguing moments come in the form of a mind game in which Ender is represented by a mouse, faced with a giant and other allegorical obstacles – and there’s the attention-grabbing ending, too. On the whole, Gavin Hood’s take on the material is more effective than the over-the-top satire Paul Verhoeven wrought with his Starship Troopers adaptation, even if the Ender’s Game team doesn’t quite hit a home run.

SUMMARY: Certainly not the easiest story to bring to the screen, Ender’s Game presents a blend of mature themes and sci-fi action – a balancing act that mostly pays off.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Prisoners

For F*** Magazine

PRISONERS

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Run Time: 152 mins
Opens: 19 September 2013
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language)

We’ve seen many examples of the “Papa Wolf” archetype in cinema over the years, a character who transforms into an unstoppable force of nature after his child is hurt, kidnapped or otherwise threatened, making the offenders wish they’d never crossed him. In films such as Ransom, John Q, the recent Snitch and of course Taken, fathers have leapt into the fire in the name of ensuring the well-being of their kids. Hugh Jackman now joins the ranks in this mystery thriller.

Jackman plays Keller Dover, a carpenter and repairman in the small town of Conyers, Pennsylvania. On Thanksgiving, Keller, his wife Grace (Bello), son Ralph (Dylan Minnette) and daughter Anna (Erin Gerasimovich) go over the house of Franklin Birch (Howard) and family for dinner. Afterwards, they discover that Anna, along with Franklin’s daughter Joy (Kyla Drew Simmons) is missing. Police detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) leads the investigation; a mentally handicapped young man named Alex Jones (Dano), cared for by his aunt Holly (Leo), seemingly involved. Keller is convinced of Alex’s guilt and takes matters into his own hands, repeatedly clashing with Loki as the days tick past with no sign of Anna or Joy in sight.



If the synopsis makes Prisoners sound like Taken but with Hugh Jackman, be informed that it really isn’t. While Taken was a straight-up action flick with Liam Neeson blasting a path of vengeance through Paris as the audience cheers him on, Prisoners is a thriller of the “glued to your seat with shivers down your spine” variety. The film marks the English-language debut of Québécoise director Denis Villeneuve, whose film Incendies was a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contender. Prisoners is a tightly directed piece, a sense of foreboding established early on.



The film plays out in a realistic small town setting; bleak, dreary and constantly raining. Multiple Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins of The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, True Grit (2010) and Skyfall fame, delivers some nail-biting moments with nothing more than a slow push-in. The eerie, cello-driven score by Jóhann Jóhannsson endeavours to redefine the word “ominous” and is very effective, if heavy-handed and obvious at times.



Hugh Jackman has established himself as one of the best-liked leading men in Hollywood over the past decade, and it’s easy to see why: he can dance, sing, do comedy, do drama, do action and is very personable in interviews. In Prisoners, we truly get a chance to see a side of the actor we haven’t before. As a father driven to the brink, he is remarkably believable. Keller lashes out, gets mad and does some pretty unpleasant things, but Jackman’s conviction ensures the audience is always rooting for him even as he trudges past moral boundaries and we question his methods. He also never flies into histrionics or goes laughably over the top; the flashes of raw fury behind his eyes conveying a primal anger even Wolverine might respect.



He’s backed up by a supporting cast that’s very strong by any standards; for what might be seen as a smaller movie, it sure has roped in some top-drawer talent. Jake Gyllenhaal previously investigated child kidnappings as real-life true crime author Robert Graysmith in Zodiac. His character here is less obsessive and not so much consumed by his job as dutifully going about it. Detective Loki, possibly snicker-inducing name notwithstanding, is a character we want to see succeed as much as we want to see Keller find his daughter.



Paul Dano is very good as Alex and is an actor who deserves to hit the big time very soon. Is he just feigning a disability and is really the devious mastermind, or is he a victim himself? Dano plays it such that we’re not so sure one way or the other. Melissa Leo at her suburban grandmother-iest also ensures we’re never quite certain if Keller should be trusting her. David Dastmalchian is fantastically creepy as the other prime suspect, while Viola Davis and Maria Bello both make for convincingly distraught mothers. If there’s a weak link, it might be Terrence Howard, who struggles to match up to Jackman’s skill level. Dylan Minnette and Zoe Borde as the older kids of the Dover and Birch households also deliver rather stilted performances.



However, this far from cripples this absorbing film that manages to be feverishly suspenseful without being emotionally manipulative. There are several “plants and payoffs” that might be too blatant to some viewers; points of plot which are laid down in full view so they can be picked up on again later. The masterful construction of the piece isn’t undermined and from its haunting atmospherics to its powerhouse lead performances, Prisoners is the kind of film that doesn’t loosen its grip for a second.

SUMMARY: Its premise may sound straight out of any number of police procedural TV shows, but tight direction and a firing-on-all-cylinders turn from Hugh Jackman ensure that this will be lurking around the corners of your mind for a fair bit after leaving the theatre.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong