It's just over a year since a teenage girl with remarkable ass-kicking skillz blazed an expletive-laden trail across cinema screens and delivered a breath of fresh air to audiences bored of watching middle-aged men getting all the action. Thirteen months later,
Kick-Ass's Hit Girl hands the baton to
Hanna's Hanna, who stares at it blankly, fires an arrow through it then mumbles a nonsensical payoff line at it which nobody understands.
It's hard to see how
Hanna wouldn't work: the story of a girl raised in the wilderness to be a ruthless assassin by Eric Bana (himself no slouch with the assassining stuff), then forced to go on the run, simultaneously hunting and hunted by hard-assed CIA bitch Cate Blanchett across continents, with some potentially devastating revelations about her own identity to discover along the way should be the perfect appetiser before the summer's main course of blockbusting action spectacugasms.
Unfortunately it's more like a fortune cookie: bland, hollow and with nothing useful or interesting to say. Saoirse Ronan can run and fight a bit, but her permanently expressionless chops never let us anywhere near her character; Eric Bana gets one spectacularly-shot and choreographed fight scene and not much else, while Cate Blanchett, one of the world's most overrated actors, is as unconvincing as her hair.
With
Pride And Prejudice and
Atonement director Joe Wright behind the camera you might expect some dramatic interplay or character depth, but instead you get a series of Chemical Brothers music videos linked by frustratingly unfulfilled scenes of potential interest (Hanna's sexual awakening is hinted at then forgotten about; the truth about her past is banal and irrelevant), a thread of incongruous comic relief from a British family in a motorhome, and the year's oddest casting in cuddly Tom Hollander as a sadistic hitman with an inexplicable wardrobe and neo-Nazi sidekicks.
Still, if it's a violent gore-fest you're after,
Hanna is the film to see. Don't just take my word for it: the IMDb Parents' Guide tells you all you need to know.
Hit Girl must be shitting herself.
Im glad someone else feels the same way I did when I saw it. it was a lot of interesting pieces but it never really added up to anything in the end, which was disappointing because this movie had so much potential.
ReplyDeleteWell, that is an off putting review.
ReplyDeletePerhaps 'Hannah & Her Sisters'(1986) would be a better film to see. Michael Caine got an Oscar as best supporting actor and Woody Allen got an Oscar and BAFTA for best screenplay. Woody Allen also got a BAFTA for best director.
I'm a Woody Allen fan and this is him in his creative prime.
By the way, how many months will elapse before the first 'Raid on Abbottabad' film emerges in the wake of Bin Laden's death.
Ronan's character was genetically altered to feel less pity, pain, and emotions than a regular human being. That's why she was distant. The scene where the British family is held hostage declares they too thought Hanna was odd and aloof.
ReplyDelete"Saoirse Ronan can run and fight a bit, but her permanently expressionless chops never let us anywhere near her character"
ReplyDeleteThat's how the character was supposed to be played. She's clearly socially awkward having lived with just her father for sixteen years and also as the previous poster mentioned genetically altered to feel less pity, pain, and emotions than a regular human beings.
Wow, what a bad review. Clearly you don't know anything about acting, Saoirse Ronan and Blanchett are 2 of the worlds best actresses and you completely miss the point of the movie. Stick to bland comedic movies like Kick-Ass, this is for real movie goers. Maybe Michael Bay is more up your alley.
ReplyDeleteYou probably didn't put your name to the so-called above review because it would cause great embarrassment to the author. If you had a clue about film, you surely would recognize Saoirse Ronan as a transcendent talent. Her screen presence and charisma is staggering, and her acting ability at age seventeen is off-the-charts. The only thing you accomplished by writing this nonsense is proving that you are a buffoon.
ReplyDeleteReading these strident, aggressive, reactionary replies, I thought "these people read like IMDb board-dwellers. I wonder if Suit posted a link on the Hanna board?".
ReplyDeleteStock IMDb speak:
"you missed the point of the film!"
"that's what it was supposed to be like!"
"I bet you'd prefer a Michael Bay film!"
"You don't know anything about movies, and I do, so ner!"
"[Insert actor/director/movie's name] is [insert hyperbolic raptures] and if you disagree I will rape your children and burn your village to the ground!"
"Hit Girl must be shitting herself."
ReplyDeleteLOL. You must have seen a different movie. Hit-girl went against 5 drug dealers and then a dozen of goons with weapons. Hanna ran from the 3 german dudes plus a 50yr old woman.
Who was shitting their pants? :)
Was anybody actually reading the same review as me?
ReplyDelete"Hit Girl must be shitting herself."
ReplyDeleteTo the poster who read that the wrong way.
The writer of the article meant that Hit-Girl laughing so hard to the posted "Violence & Gore" chart.
And to TheUnWashedMass: apparently he/she did. And apparently I do agree with most of they aggressive reviews. It's poorly written tongue-and-cheek review.
"LOL. You must have seen a different movie. Hit-girl went against 5 drug dealers and then a dozen of goons with weapons. Hanna ran from the 3 german dudes plus a 50yr old woman."
ReplyDeleteOf she did. It based of a comic book you idiot. If was more realistic she would've been slaughtered.
I agree Mr Suit, it was overall pretty bland with the odd nice set piece, and yes Blanchett was really bad.
ReplyDeleteUgggh, I didn't care for this one too much either, though Tom Hollander's performance as a German football hooligan version of Omar Little was fun. The biggest problem (i.e. beyond the all-over-the-place plot, toe-curling dialogue, irritating characters, needlessly hi-NRG soundtrack, etc.) was Joe Wright's direction - it was just a huge mess of visual cliche with no balance or consistency.
ReplyDeleteI did think that Soairse Ronan was pretty good though.