March 18 2015
Blackhat By Ken Glennon It takes less than thirty minutes of Michael Mann’s new film Blackhat before someone talks about ‘bringing down heat’. This well-worn adage has served this film-maker well over the years, echoing the sentiment of Johnny Depp’s Dillinger in Mann’s thirties set Public Enemies or Robert De Niro’s thief Neil McCauley in his 1995 crime masterpiece Heat. While the venue and period and equipment may change, Mann’s criminals and the professionals hunting them remain constant. Though the director’s latest is ostensibly an international chase thriller set within the world of cyber terrorism his fundamentals remain intact. Blackhat sets off with a striking assault on a nuclear power plant in Hong Kong. Beginning with a tap on a keyboard the sequence follows a virus’ progress through cyberspace. Like cancer attacking and corrupting healthy cells the strike in the virtual world causes a plant meltdown. This brings into play Chinese cyber warfare official Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang) who works with the FBI to catch the hacker responsible. Conveniently enough Chen shared a room in college with a genius hacker named Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) who is serving a thirteen year sentence. Believing Hathaway the two agencies best bet at apprehending their guy Hemsworth is released on conditional pardon.
Chappie By Néil Rodgers Set in futuristic South Africa, Chappie tells the tale of a robot with artificial intelligence as he adapts to the dark world around him. Unfortunately for all involved, Chappie is seriously flawed from the very beginning. Voicing social issues while involving exhilarating action has worked for director Neill Blomkamp’s last few films but sadly fails to appease audiences in this case. Chappie creates problems for itself early on. Where the trailer led you to believe one story, the film actually takes a different path, focussing less on Chappie’s adjustment to real life and more on his relationship with a criminal gang that corrupt the friendly robot. With this going on for most of the movie Chappie begins to disconnect its audience from the characters and overall plot. Played by real life rappers of the same name, the criminals Ninja and Yo-Landi are inherently unlikable and yet receive most of the attention throughout the film. As the robot is new to the world, his innocence is highlighted significantly and resembles that of a child opening up to the world around him. As such you never side with these people and despise them for their corrupting of a young mind. One could argue this was intentionally done to stress the message of the film. Where he once addressed South Africa’s racism issue in District 9 and health-care
FILM REVIEWS 23 Also on board are two FBI handlers, played by Viola Davis and Holt McCanley, and Wei Tang as Chen’s sister Lien. Together they track a cyber-criminal across the globe leaving a whirlwind of techno jargon in their wake. In this regard the intricacies of how the plot moves may not always be readily clear but the why is always clear. Working with writer Morgan Davis Foehl, Mann’s script gives out enough information for viewers to navigate this very technical world but without insulting it’s audience or getting bogged down in lines of code. Instead the picture offers an immersive, pacy and frequently startling visual experience. From a walk through a post meltdown reactor, reminiscent of a set from Ridley Scott’s Alien to the recurrent image of eyes following our characters from Orwellian billboards, or the final image of a skyscraper at night seen from a dying gunshot victim, Mann and DP Stuart Dryburg flood the screen with beautiful dream-like imagery. There’s a tremendous sense of location here, where a camera happily roves through a Chinese market as the setting, rather than a heading on-screen announces where we are. As with half the material shot in LA at night for Collateral, Mann’s use of digital photography here lending a realism and immediacy to what could easily resemble an implausible thriller. Rather Mann has returned with an engrossing contemporary thriller. Boasting its maker’s familiar high level of technical polish, timely subject matter and committed performances, Blackhat is pure Michael Mann from beginning to end. and social stratification in Elysium, Chappie takes on the larger issue of humanity as a whole However there was so much potential to convey this message in a different light. As the film progresses Chappie develops a moral structure from those around him as well as TV shows and films that he has seen. Blomkamp misses an opportunity here to relate to his audience as this development from childhood into adult life is a path we have all travelled. In this regard the message would have been interpreted better had they approached it in a more delicate manner. The acting from Ninja and Yo-Landi is lacking. It is a shame to see the likes of Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver carry so much weight in their names and yet be criminally underused. I can’t help but feel that this waste of potential could have been avoided, had another route been taken. Chappie does strive to be better however. It is perhaps in the filthy slums of this dystopian wasteland that we begin to see a glimmer of hope. Having a keen eye for sharp imagery and exciting action sequences, Blomkamp comes out the better in this less than spectacular film bringing Sharlto Copley with him, as he offers an emotional and poignant portrait of Chappie. Despite these high notes, there is simply not enough to save this film. Lacking the proper plot and acting to propel the key message behind it, Chappie unfortunately fails to entice. It’s a shame to see such a talented director be held down by silly mistakes. The potential was here for a truly beautiful film and is, instead, sadly a disappointment.
Focus By Néil Rodgers The modern con movie has become, in recent years, something of pure beauty. With audiences expecting more from movies, challenging them to guess what is about to happen next has proved a winning formula. Following in the footsteps of greats such as The Sting, Oceans 11 and Catch Me If You Can, Focus travels a familiar cinematic route for a con movie classic, but offers just enough to make it extremely enjoyable. When small time grifter Jess (Robbie) meets seasoned con artist Nicky (Smith) the two form both a professional and personal relationship spanning three years, performing a serious of cons, ruses and swindles and making big money in the process. However, when the game as well as their relationship is taken to the next level, the two soon learn that things don’t always go so smoothly. What distinguishes this movie from any other currently in the box office is its confidence; it simply exudes it from the very first scene. This is largely down to brilliant performances by Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Smith’s charismatic turn as the veteran con man mirrors that of George Clooney’s performance in the most recent Oceans 11. Without a doubt Focus has been the comeback that this actor deserved after his abysmal turn in criti-
cally despised After Earth. Making the part his own, Smith’s performance is complemented in a big way by an equally brilliant and extremely funny Margot Robbie. Under rated in a big way for her breakout performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, the Australian actress has really come into her own by creating a deceiving yet likable crook. These performances contrasted with some nice visuals and scenes that build genuine tension make this movie thoroughly enjoyable for the most part. The film does meet some speed bumps in the second act. While always being charming and engaging with the audience, this section of the film loses the fun and tense moments of what came before and swaps them out with scenes focusing more on the two’s connection. While their relationship is important it does start to become less and less interesting as the film progresses. Like a great magic trick the audience should never know what’s coming next and anticipate the end but with the focus (no pun intended) being more on the artists as opposed to the ‘big con’, you begin to not care about how it ends. As such the ending falls flat with no tension building up to an unrealistic finale. In this regard the film definitely bit off more than it could chew and attempts to act clever to its audience, an audience that has somewhat lost interest. Despite this the film is still so enjoyable. One half absolute triumph, Focus never truly reaches the heights of its predecessors but it gets close enough.