I got to see the spy-thriller Hanna at an advance screening last night. Overall, I think this movie had some great ideas and possibilities, but failed to fully realize them, primarily at the story level. It was very nicely shot, had a cool soundtrack from the Chemical Brothers.
The story centres on Hanna, a teenage girl who has been raised in the wilderness with her ex- secret agent father. He’s been training her all her life for her return to society, where she will extract revenge on the CIA agent who killed her mother. Hanna intentionally gets herself captured by the CIA, and thinks she does so before escaping a massive holding complex. From there, it becomes a race across Europe with Hanna trying to rendezvous with her father, while the CIA agent and her cronies hunt them down.
The camerawork for the most part was really nice. It called attention to itself a bit at the beginning, but disappeared pretty quickly. The lighting and set design was great. Overall the film had a really good look to it.
Unfortunately the best characters in this movie were the supporting cast, and they dropped out of the film halfway through. The main villain felt like a caricature, so I didn’t care for her at all, even being Cate Blanchett. Eric Bana did well as Hanna’s father – I would have liked to see a bit more of the loving father side along with the drill sergeant, but he still came off well. I liked Hanna for the first half, but in the end I found myself losing interest.
The editing was hit and miss. There was some really, really good stuff throughout. Great transitions, some well played reveals. But there were also places where it just fell down. A number of scenes went on too long. There were unnecessary shots included that actually confused character motivation. Some just plain unneeded scenes.
I think where this film really came apart was at the story level, not from one or two big things, but a culmination of little things. Characters making decisions with no real (or at least evident) motivations. A McGuffin that wasn’t but was but wasn’t a McGuffin. Cookie cutter bad guys. Smack you across the face Deus ex machina.
But the biggest problem for me was the ending. Despite all the other issues, the film was actually building along a couple of themes quite nicely, but rather than nail them home, they threw it all out the window going for spectacle rather than substance. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, I wasn’t alone in my thinking. And being the end, it left a bad feeling walking out the door – not what you want from your advance screening audience.
While it may seem I’m hitting the story pretty hard on this one, overall the movie is half decent. I’m more disappointed in it as it wouldn’t have taken that much more work to make the story really strong. It feels like he people in charge tried to make the movie into what they wanted, rather than what the movie was becoming. I wouldn’t hit the theatres for this one, but if you’re looking for a slightly different spy thriller, this would be worth hitting up on Netflix.
The story centres on Hanna, a teenage girl who has been raised in the wilderness with her ex- secret agent father. He’s been training her all her life for her return to society, where she will extract revenge on the CIA agent who killed her mother. Hanna intentionally gets herself captured by the CIA, and thinks she does so before escaping a massive holding complex. From there, it becomes a race across Europe with Hanna trying to rendezvous with her father, while the CIA agent and her cronies hunt them down.
The camerawork for the most part was really nice. It called attention to itself a bit at the beginning, but disappeared pretty quickly. The lighting and set design was great. Overall the film had a really good look to it.
Unfortunately the best characters in this movie were the supporting cast, and they dropped out of the film halfway through. The main villain felt like a caricature, so I didn’t care for her at all, even being Cate Blanchett. Eric Bana did well as Hanna’s father – I would have liked to see a bit more of the loving father side along with the drill sergeant, but he still came off well. I liked Hanna for the first half, but in the end I found myself losing interest.
The editing was hit and miss. There was some really, really good stuff throughout. Great transitions, some well played reveals. But there were also places where it just fell down. A number of scenes went on too long. There were unnecessary shots included that actually confused character motivation. Some just plain unneeded scenes.
I think where this film really came apart was at the story level, not from one or two big things, but a culmination of little things. Characters making decisions with no real (or at least evident) motivations. A McGuffin that wasn’t but was but wasn’t a McGuffin. Cookie cutter bad guys. Smack you across the face Deus ex machina.
But the biggest problem for me was the ending. Despite all the other issues, the film was actually building along a couple of themes quite nicely, but rather than nail them home, they threw it all out the window going for spectacle rather than substance. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, I wasn’t alone in my thinking. And being the end, it left a bad feeling walking out the door – not what you want from your advance screening audience.
While it may seem I’m hitting the story pretty hard on this one, overall the movie is half decent. I’m more disappointed in it as it wouldn’t have taken that much more work to make the story really strong. It feels like he people in charge tried to make the movie into what they wanted, rather than what the movie was becoming. I wouldn’t hit the theatres for this one, but if you’re looking for a slightly different spy thriller, this would be worth hitting up on Netflix.
