Hanna

Evan and I went to see Hanna on Tuesday night. I don't have a whole lot to say about it, so this review might be pretty short. There were a lot of previews, so that was nice. A few of them made our list. I got two and we tied for another. And there was one we hadn't seen before, but I can't remember what it was.

The movie starts out very quietly. Which was kind of annoying, as it's also the part of the movie where people are opening their bags of candy and taking loud sips of pop, and whispering to their dates (there were a lot of couples there, I'm not sure why). And there was one guy either at the back or in the hallway outside who was loudly conversing over a cell phone. So the silence of the movie was pretty much ruined. But it starts of with Hanna stalking and then killing a deer, someplace very cold. While she's skinning it, her dad - Erik - comes along and they fight. But it's okay, because it's a training fight, not a real one. Hanna unleashed a disconcerting war cry that only shows up once more, about five minutes later when a plane flies overhead. If I had that shriek, I'd use it more when I'm fighting, if only to throw my opponents off balance.

Anyway, the beginning of the movie (maybe 15 to 20 minutes) is just Hanna and her father, living about 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Europe. They live in a small log cabin with no electricity. Her father's taught her many different languages, a lot of fighting techniques, and reads to her every night from the encyclopaedia. So she has a lot of knowledge, but not the context of how it fits together. One of the recurring themes of the movie is music. Hanna knows the definition, but has never heard it before. So there are a few emphasized scenes of music later on.

Anyway, Erik eventually breaks out a radio that will tell the CIA where he is, and tells Hanna that it's her choice about whether to turn it on or not. He has been training her to kill Marissa Veigler when she's "Ready," and getting picked up by the CIA is the first step. She turns the radio on, and Eric gives her some last minute instructions, then leaves.

A CIA team arrives in the dead of night, but can't find Erik, so they take Hanna back to their facility. She asks to see Veigler, and cries into her lap (it's actually an impostor, because Veigler is pretty cunning, and not suicidal), but only as a pretence so she can snap her neck and escape. Here the music comes back, because the Chemical Brothers did the soundtrack, and they lay down some action-augmenting beats. Good stuff that definitely improved on the action. The escape is mainly about crawling or running through concrete tunnels, while military personnel run around like a Benny Hill sketch.

She emerges in the middle of a desert (and I don't mind spoiling the movie for you guys, since it's not that great). From there, she manages to hook up with a tourist family. The mother and father are somewhat new-agy, and there's a daughter a bit younger than Hanna and a son around 10 years old or so (Hanna's 16). Hanna and the daughter become friends, which is nice, because Hanna's never had one before. This part of the movie includes many artsy shots that wasted a lot of time that could have been better spent on action. This is pretty much the big problem with the movie. Too much art (and symbolism), not enough action. And the action isn't that great. I think they were more interested in realism than awesome, which is generally a concept I disagree with when it comes to movies. More awesome, please!

It eventually comes out that Hanna is very special due to some military experimentation involving gene manipulation. I think that's silly, because the army is not going to wait 18 years (or 17, with parental consent) for soldiers. They are going to want their soldiers NOW, while there's fighting to do. But that's the only big plot hole I could find.

Anyhow, Hanna and Erik, separately, get chased across Europe by Veigler, the CIA, and various evil mercenaries Veigler hired because the CIA isn't really allowed to break the law that violently. Not that mercenaries are, but they don't care about the law. They're both terrifying and silly, which is a jarring combination. I didn't like it much.

Not that I hated all of this movie. The beginning was fantastic. I was trying to figure out where the plot was going, and how they lived like that, and meanwhile Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan were just Acting. Fantastically. It was a pleasure just to sit there and watch. Which is weird, because it's usually during this time that I want something to explode, or for one character to introduced another's face to his foot, via roundhouse kick. So to enjoy that section of the movie so much was a bit peculiar.

It didn't last. I started to get a bit antsy when the plot kicked off but the action didn't. Sure, there were some small chases, but most of it was shot on shaky cam. And there was some good music, but you can't base action around good music and hand-held cameras. Well, you can, but you can't expect lots of profit. Good reviews, but no customers. So directors can keep their artistic vision in their wallets, because they'll have no money in there.

I'm interested in music more than most people, so I didn't mind the forays into that, but there was one scene around a bonfire with Spanish music that just kept going, and going, and going. I enjoyed the guitar (Spanish guitar, or whatever it is, takes tremendous talents to do properly), but then someone started singing, and that went on for a while, and then she was dancing, and that went on for a while, and then someone else was dancing. In real life, I'm sure it be a nice break from the stress of trying to get projects out the door, managing incompetent workers, and trying to avoid pointy-haired bosses, but it's a huge break in a movie where NOTHING HAPPENS! They did get one good joke out of it - a boy tries to kiss Hanna after some awkwardness, and promptly gets thrown face-first into the dirt. Hanna's not really up on social interaction.

I think this movie is mostly a DVD movie. It's probably a little better than that, actually (it's certainly better than the other DVD movies we've seen), but not quite good enough for a Blu-Ray. There's too little action, and it's not well done. However, the music is frequently quite good, and if you're into acting or symbolism, this movie is for you.