Watching Hanna and expecting a blood-soaked action movie is like watching softcore porn when you are expecting hardcore porn. You’re really excited and into it at first, then as time goes on and they don’t get to the good stuff, you start getting disappointed, confused, and maybe a little blue. However, if you go into the film knowing what to expect, then you might enjoy it a little more.
Saoirse Ronan stars as a 16-year-old girl, Hanna, who has lived secluded in a cabin with her father, Erik (Eric Bana). Her whole life Hanna has been trained by her father to be the perfect assassin. Her mission is to kill a corrupt CIA agent Marissa (Cate Blanchett) who is trying to kill Hanna’s daddy dearest.
The three main actors did a great job, especially Ronan. It’s great to see a female lead in an action thriller. Actually, out of the three main characters two of them were female and they did a hell of a good job. At first I was pulled into the story despite the lack of action, but as the movie went on though I felt like there it wasn’t building towards any kind of a climax, and when the “mystery” unraveled, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I was thinking, “Yeah, so?” And then it ended. It’s my fault really. I went in to Hanna with too high of expectations.
The action was well choreographed and awesome when Hanna actually fought the baddies, which was rare. The amount of action in the trailers is about equal to the action in the movie.
Hanna is more of a coming-of-age flick than an action movie, but it’s still enjoyable. Go in expecting nothing and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Baddies: Marissa!
Best Kill: Hanna pretends to cry and be upset about being in the CIA facility. She climbs into the lap of the female agent who is pretending to be Marissa and hugs her. Hanna then snaps the agent’s neck like a twig. She goes on to kill the next three or so men who come in after her. Awesome! Also, the lesson to be learned here is to never trust a crying child.
Best Explosion: There weren’t any. Boo!
Action Rating: 1 ½ Teenage Girls Rampaging Through the Wilderness, out of 5.
Illustration by Alex Langley. Rocket Llama World Headquarters.
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
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I always find it… ‘amusing’ when a story talks about making the ‘perfect assassin’ by keeping them secluded.
I reckon if your definition of ‘assassin’ is ‘stealthy combatant’ then perhaps that’d be true (i.e. like a ninja).
However really would a perfect assassin need all sorts of crazy combat skills? Seems to me that if you find yourself needing those on much of any basis you are sort of failing at being a perfect assassin: which would be one that no one suspects, and who kills you quietly, covertly, and who is gone or forgotten by the time the dead person is found.
Otherwise aren’t you more or less building the perfect shock trooper/black ops soldier?
Anyway.
If they had cut out the parts with the RV family it would have been more of an action movie. SAOIRSE RONAN is pretty badass, probably second only to CHLOE MORETZ vis-a-vis “KICK ASS.”
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This is seriously one of the best movies I have seen in a long, long time. As soon as she’s locked in the secret room you know it’s just going to be over the top. The way she gets out of there is… whew (and that’s way too early in the movie to be a spoiler).
This was such an awesome movie.
What made it especially good were all the ways it veered from familiar action movie territory. Like all the surreal humor of the girl who is totally out of her element and exploring the modern world for the very first time. There are times it is laugh out loud funny because the humor comes at such incongruous spots.
Loved it. Like, super crazy hard.