Hanna

[Jeremy Blackman]

Finally got around to seeing this. I agree with Picolas and Pete.

The strengths were obviously Saorise Ronan (throughout), the beginning escape sequence (amazing), and how they started to develop her character.

Biggest weakness was the third act (Picolas being spot on about that). I loved the scene with the shipping containers, but after that it just sort of regressed into uninteresting silliness. By the final sequence, I had completely stopped buying Cate Blanchett's character. That was a major problem. A lesser problem (though still a problem), was Eric Bana. I'm not sure there's any accent, including his own, that he can deliver convincingly.

The way they reveal Hanna's true nature/history is also really inept, partially no doubt because they let Eric Bana do it, partially because we had already put things together, and partially because the exposition itself feels dull/forced and contributes basically nothing of interest.

I think the biggest issue was the editing. It's so clunky. Exposition scenes (most of them involving Cate Blanchett) were just sort of wedged between the good parts. Also, it was especially distracting that we essentially never see bullets meeting their targets in any of the gunshot scenes (and there were plenty). It worked in the escape sequence, but it stopped working after that. And yet, we saw Hanna's knife meet her victims graphically in at least one or two scenes. What a strange and ineffectual choice. I suspect the PG-13 rating has something to do with this.

[ElPandaRoyal]

Saw this a while ago, but didn't really care for it either. Apart from Saoirse Ronan, who is always amazing, it always felt like it wanted to be too cool for school, and a couple of scenes aside, it didn't even work as a proper action movie, which was the least I expected from it. I remember an overall feeling of self-importance that made it a disappointment. Plus, a lot of random visual flourishes in the style of Danny Boyle didn't help. Also, Blanchett and Bana were completely wasted in this, which is a shame, considering their talent deserves way more.