Blackhat, director's cut, (2016) Review

"Are you still gonna like me if I'm fixing garage door openers?"

A hacker movie where no one is going "enhance, enhance..." over a grainy photo; where no IP is bouncing from New York to Tokyo to JoBurg to Sao Paolo (We can't track him!!!); where no computer worm is literally eating someone's data like so many apples as a progress bar fills.

Instead, everyone involved seems refreshingly familiar with Ubuntu, server racks, and social engineering. Chris Hemsworth is a himbo w/ a command line. He came in for casting criticism, but the main character can't be some spindly nerdlinger or the romance and the firefights become immersion-breakers. The gunfire is signature Michael Mann, and I think he smartly waits until the films 2nd act to pop the lid on the action sequences.

The script is- of course- immediately forgettable, but not why you throw on this sort of cyber-thriller. US and China joining forces like this seems increasingly implausible both IRL and on film, but maybe in both cases, like the film's protagonists and antagonists, it's ultimately all about the money.