There is only one word to describe the utter waste of talent that is “Hanna.” Obnoxious. With a techno soundtrack that makes your ears bleed, seizure inducing visuals, and no story whatsoever the movie leaves the viewer wishing they would have gone and seen “Source Code” for a fifth time instead.
The “story” revolves around a young girl named Hanna (played by the rising young actress Saoirse Ronan), who has grown up in the antarctic wilderness with her father Erik Heller (Eric Bana). When she was just a baby Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a colleague of Erik’s, tried to kill Erik, Hanna, and her mother, yet she only succeed in killing Hanna’s mother. And thus the revenge “story” begins.
Hanna’s journey from Antarctica to Morocco to Germany is filled with minor twists and senseless violence throughout, as well as an extremely annoying family (presumably American.) As Hanna continues to break bad guys necks, shoot them in the face and slice them open the viewer wonders how this managed a PG-13 rating.
The soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers is a massive amalgam of sounds no one wants to hear. Random techno noises screech throughout action sequences, and they never stop blaring. By the end of the film I was having trouble deciphering the difference between actual “music” and the special effects.
As all action movies of our time the fighting sequences were well done, with solid art direction. Yet that did not save this movie. The director, Joe Wright, drifted from his usual emotion filled movies, “The Soloist,” “Atonement,” “Pride and Prejudice,” to a cold senseless thriller that leaves the viewer feeling as though he should have stayed in his genre. The directing wasn’t horrible, but it was not good enough to make a positive influence on the film.
In the end the producers wasted three extremely talented actors, who did their best under the circumstances, and delivered a story worthy of a first grader. After this debauchery Wright should consider directing another Jane Austin novel, the writers should repeat Advanced Comp, and The Chemical Brothers should try some music lessons.
