52
Metascore
37 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSlant MagazineJesse CataldoMichael Mann's camera elegantly collapses the spaces between bodies and objects without sacrificing spatial coherence.
- 83The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezBlackhat is a meticulous and exacting procedural, as obsessive with its hunt for its intangible antagonist as Mann’s compulsive desire to appreciate the flow of 1s and 0s in the virtual space. It’s chockablock with technobabble and jargon that may alienate the average viewer, but Mann’s secret weapon is his infectious fascination with the subject. The movie is like a conductive surface for his unmitigated zeal, and its potency is viral.
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThe film is a snarl of contradictions, starting with the discrepancy between Mann’s obsessive demand for realism and the consistently implausible screenplay.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfUnlike most directors, style is hardly a side dish with Michael Mann—it’s the main entrée. No one captures city lights at night or luxury cars slinking down the highway like the creator of Miami Vice, and his conversion to digital video continues to yield breathtaking results.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenAt its best, the movie achieves a broody dazzle, even as the narrative proves less memorable than one would have hoped. But the fluency of Mann’s direction and the slow-burn chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Tang Wei counterbalance the more ordinary, and not always involving, procedural elements.
- 60Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekVillage VoiceStephanie ZacharekThere’s visual thinking everywhere you look in Blackhat, which is great until you realize that it’s bled into a kind of overthinking — the movie is too much of a good thing, an exercise that flattens any potential exhilaration or excitement into the sensation of grading a term paper.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyEntertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOccasionally, Mann shows flashes of the sort of springloaded action set pieces he was once hailed for, like a shoot-out during a religious parade. But mostly they just come off as warmed-over parodies from a onetime master aping his own style.
- 40The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanBlackhat can’t decide if it is a grim, realistic story from the trenches or cyberwarfare or a giddy, “who cares if that makes sense?” Bond film.
- 25HitfixDrew McWeenyHitfixDrew McWeenyBlackhat is a staggering misfire by a whole bunch of talented people, terrible in a way that only a good filmmaker can accomplish, and it kicks off 2015 by setting the bar very, very low. Things can only get better from here.
- 20TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeBlackhat is such a massive fiasco that it’s hard to know where to begin analyzing it.