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

Transcendence

For F*** Magazine

TRANSCENDENCE

Director: Wally Pfister
Cast:  Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Clifton Collins Jr., Josh Stewart, Cole Hauser, Cory Hardrict
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Run Time: 119 mins
Opens: 17 April 2014
Rating: PG (Some Violence)

In the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Johnny Depp asked “why is the rum gone?” and in Transcendence, he gets to ask “why is the RAM gone?” Depp plays Dr. Will Caster who, along with his wife Evelyn (Hall), is one of the foremost minds in artificial intelligence research. His work has earned the ire of a radical militant anti-technology activist group called RIFT; their operative fatally wounding him. Before Will’s death, he and Evelyn decide to upload Will’s consciousness to a supercomputer, something Will’s best friend Max (Bettany) warns against. As Will in his transcendent form becomes near-omnipotent, Will and Evelyn’s mentor Joseph Tagger (Freeman) works with FBI agent Donald Buchanan (Murphy) to contain and stop Will before he endangers his wife and the world at large.



Transcendence marks the directorial debut of Wally Pfister, winner of a Best Cinematography Oscar for Inception. Perhaps echoing the film’s themes of a wariness of technology in some small way, Pifster is an outspoken critic of shooting on digital format and insisted on shooting Transcendence on 35 mm film. Jack Paglen’s script earned a spot on the 2012 Black List of unproduced screenplays that had garnered the most positive industry buzz. Transcendence is reminiscent of 90s cyber-punk techno-thrillers, bearing shades of The Lawnmower Man, The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ, Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix; also clearly influenced by the works of sci-fi authors William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, both famous for exploring the dynamic relationship between man and machine. Source Code is a recent genre entry that also comes to mind. There’s a bit of Rise of the Planet of the Apes vibe too, with the well-intentioned scientists playing god. While all the above-mentioned films had their outlandish moments (or were outlandish as a whole), Pfister takes great pains to maintain a po-faced plausibility and he is mostly successful.

Pfister’s style as a cinematographer is marked by a clinical precision which curiously didn’t sacrifice too much personality, and that is carried over to Transcendence. As far as directing debuts go, this is an assured first feature and hopefully a sign of great things to come from Pfister. The story has its predictable moments but it makes turns into surprising territory when it matters the most. At the mid-point of the story, Will and Evelyn buy over a dusty, dilapidated town, transforming it into a futuristic cradle of ground-breaking technology, enriching the lives of its residents akin to the forward-thinking pioneer who revolutionises a backward frontier town in a Western. The way in which Evelyn’s love for her husband clouds her judgement is presented compellingly, though there are perhaps one too many spots in which she goes “oh, now you’ve gone too far!” while the story continues apace.



Johnny Depp’s popularity has waned in recent years, moviegoers growing tired of his eccentric shtick and the big-budget bomb The Lone Ranger doing him no favours. You know an actor has played some weird roles when “human consciousness in a supercomputer” is considered relatively normal by his standards. Depp is on good form here, his Will Caster beginning as a loveable just-mad-enough scientist and then progressing into a non-corporeal force of technology without going “the full Skynet”. That’s not particularly easy to play and it is a better career move for Depp than running around with a dead bird on his head.

It might be Depp’s face on the poster (the one that looks like it hasn’t completely loaded) but this is as much Rebecca Hall’s film as it is his. While Evelyn’s characterisation does at times lean towards “female lead being defined by the male character”, she moves the plot forward as much as anyone else does and just like in Iron Man 3, Hall is believable as a scientist and effectively essays a woman struggling with some complex ethical conundrums. Freeman and Murphy’s characters fall squarely into the categories of “mentor figure” and “cop assigned to the case” respectively, but they are as competent as they typically are. Paul Bettany’s part is meatier, as he goes from being Will’s confidant and supporter to being possibly swayed by RIFT’s ideology. As the shady RIFT operative Bree, Kate Mara’s performance brings the likes of The East and The Company You Keep to mind. She’s not the greatest actress but she does lend a degree of sympathetic humanity to what could have been a generic band of bad guys.

Audiences flock to big-budget, spectacle-driven sci-fi blockbusters, but there’s definitely room in the market for techno-thrillers that are smaller in scale but also more thought-provoking, intelligent and carefully-crafted. There are parts of the film that are genuinely chills-inducing – suffice it to say that Cyber-Will doesn’t become a charming, affable Him. Transcendence falls short of brilliance, not digging as deep into its premise as it could have, but it is still engrossing, boasts a top-drawer cast and is satisfyingly cerebral if not mental gymnastics-inducing.

Summary: It’s not quite mind-blowing, but Transcendence is still a well-made, clever and entertaining post-cyber-punk thriller (and the least annoying Johnny Depp has been in a while). Jack in and boot up!


RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Intelligence

RTL CBS Entertainment Channel held a press screening of the Intelligence pilot episode earlier tonight, and I was able to attend. The CBS television show's first episode was watched by 16.49 million viewers on its first airing in the U.S. and is the highest-rated debut of the 2013-2014 television season. Here's a quick, informal review of the pilot. 

Scruffy heartthrob Josh Holloway, best known as Sawyer from Lost, stars as Agent Gabriel Vaughn, an operative of Cyber Command. He has been implanted with a supercomputer and is able to draw on satellites, the internet, security cameras and recording devices, making a wealth of knowledge instantly accessible. His boss, Cyber Command director Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger) hires ex-Secret Service agent Riley Neal (Meghan Ory) to protect Vaughn, something neither are initially keen on. Rogue Chinese agents, led by Jin Cong (Will Yun Lee) plan to implant a similar chip into an operative of their own, kidnapping scientist  Shenendoah Cassidy (John Billingsley) and forcing him to do their bidding. Meanwhile, Vaughn is intent on getting to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of his wife Amelia (Zuleikha Robinson), a CIA agent who was apparently turned and was complicit in the Mumbai bombings. 

Creator Michael Seitzman's intention was to build a TV show around a "modern Six-Million-Dollar Man", and the premise is reminiscent of the action-comedy series Chuck (sans laughs) and even more than that, Jake 2.0. The show has something of a 90s techno-thriller vibe, marrying a pared down cyberpunk sensibility with post-Bourne espionage thrills. It's relatively solid but it really isn't nothing we haven't seen before. The characters are very much stock archetypes, the protagonist being a highly decorated patriot who's skilled, sexy and reckless. He has a dark and troubled past (TM), seeking to unravel a personal mystery. He's paired with the beautiful newcomer who wants nothing to do with him - we're told that she single-handedly fought off four assailants while on the protective detail of Sasha and Malia Obama. And of course there's the no-nonsense boss lady running the show. It is pretty rote.

Vaughn's ace up his sleeve is an ability called "rendering", a process which pulls data from every available source and allows Vaughn to reconstruct a virtual crime scene, frozen in time and fully annotated, in his mind, his own imagination filling in some of the blanks. It is presented slickly and is sufficiently futuristic. We are also shown that this technology has its limits, keeping Vaughn from turning into a hyper-connected superhero. In addition to that, we have the expected fisticuffs and gunplay and some of the fights are decently choreographed.

Holloway is handsome and charming, by no means a great actor but a dependable choice to carry an action-oriented television series. A good deal of the dialogue is quite cliché: for example, upon meeting Riley Neal, Director Strand tells her to "take a walk with me" as they stroll through Cyber Command headquarters, allowing Strand to deliver some exposition. Vaughn and Neal bicker and will supposedly warm up to each other over the course of the show. He's still pretty attached to his presumed-dead wife, but you can bet there'll be a "will they or won't they" possible romance between Vaughn and Neal. It's also pretty hard to take an agency named "Cyber Command" very seriously. Points for an unexpected and plausible reveal midway through the episode, though.

Overall, it's high-tech and fairly entertaining, but nothing cutting edge. There is every chance that it could eventually develop a rich mythology and use its premise in creative ways, but honestly, it's pretty unlikely as what I've seen so far is kinda run of the mill.