"Blackhat" (2015)

So, I took the wife to another one of those “sneak peak” premiers where you don’t know what you’re going to see until it rolls. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have sought this film out. Even though our first date involved another Michael Mann film. Actually, we were just glad it wasn’t “50 Shades.” At first…

This story should be intelligent, suspenseful, and pertinent. It deals with the threats of the new, interconnected world. Where the dangers are not just from governments and don’t necessarily involve power. Here, the criminals can be individuals and the collateral damage can involve whole cities, regions or even nations… all in an effort to pad one’s bank account.

Instead, we get brooding. Plot points that pose as smart by being uninformative or incomplete. More brooding. A romance from strangers to lovers all in an awkward stare. Character development through meaningless death that still fails to make us care. And a bunch of typing.

It does have some great cinematography. And one sequence at the end involving a parade that is visually stunning. Unfortunately, it is not enough.