SummaryRaised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatch...
SummaryRaised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatch...
While the first 18 minutes of the film is the weakest part of the whole film the rest is just way too great, entertaining, menacing, intense, and fun to watch so it's not really became a big of a deal, it's a different case if the rest of the film have lot's of problematic things, and i'm not saying that because of the rest of the film is great i forgive the first 18 minutes just like that, i'm not and i still take that as one of the cons of the film, it's more of like it got overshadowed by the whole greatness of the rest of the film, and also i'm not saying the first 18 minutes is bad, it just weak, alright now let's talk about the rest of the film, wow, Hanna is not like any action film you will ever watch or at least i've ever watch, and the biggest pros of the film is in the choreography and performances, Saoirse Ronan is a hell of a badass girl, she is incredible, she is amazing, Eric Bana is also doing great, and Cate Blanchett in one of her best performances, i also just wanna say that i need Cate Blanchett playing an antagonist role more rather than playing another protagonist especially when she's playing in a romance movie, because i think her romance role is mostly just not working for me, and in here she is just a perfect pure antagonist and it works perfectly and i love it, so do this film, i love it, it's great, it's amazing, it's incredible.
I have seen a lot of movies from this year, some amazing, some good, some decent, some bad and some truly awful. Hanna for me is one of my favourites of the year and fits in the amazing category. The story is always thrilling and further elevated by slick pacing and expertly choreographed and edited action sequences. Hanna is very well made too, there may be the odd occasion where it might feel overdone, but overall I found the cinematography, direction and editing sleek and efficient. The script is sharp and clever and helps to keep the characters well-defined. Speaking of the characters, I was pleasantly surprised at how exceptionally well-written the titular character was, hard edged yet with a sympathetic side, I loved that. The acting is truly excellent. Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana's characters aren't quite as well written as Saoirse Ronan's but both actors do a splendid job in their roles. Best of all is Ronan who is simply brilliant. All in all, amazing and one of my favourites of 2011 so far. 10/10 Bethany Cox
In the end there might not be much to this tale other than titillation, but there's plenty to be said for Ms. Ronan, who was the best thing about "Atonement" and holds her ground against forceful screen presences like Ms. Blanchett and Mr. Bana.
A much better movie than I remember originally seeing. Well acted by Saoirse Ronan (I just love that name), Cate Blanchett (I am appreciating a lot more after Notes on a Scandal and The Aviator) and Eric Bana who is somehow always good though not displaying very much range. The photography is amazing-every shot is beautiful, and Saoirse does a lot with a pretty thin character.
Sixteen, but not so sweet.
Talk about the dangers of home schooling. The mesmerizing heroine of “Hanna” — a semi-feral 16-year-old raised by her stay-at-home dad in the permafrost forests of Finland — can rattle off facts and figures about anatomy and geography in seven languages, but she’s also a ruthless killing machine. To be fair, it’s not all her father’s fault, in this intense but imperfect thriller from director Joe Wright.
The single most compelling reason to see “Hanna” is Hanna herself. As played by Saoirse Ronan, who made her first big splash as another morally challenged youngster in Wright’s 2007 “Atonement,” the character is a fascinating and frustrating cipher. Trained in hand-to-hand combat, survival skills, evasive maneuvers and gun handling, she drives the movie forward with a watchability that’s as compulsive as it is propulsive. She’s so diverting that it’s easy to overlook the movie’s flaws.
There are more than a few, starting with the switch Hanna flips — quite literally — to start the action rolling. One minute she and her father Erik (Eric Bana) are bow-hunting caribou and engaging in mixed martial arts play in the snow, and the next Hanna has activated some kind of electronic homing beacon that tells the movie’s bad girl, Marissa Wiegler (a gloriously over-the-top Cate Blanchett), just where to find them. And when I say “find them,” I mean “chopper in with a SWAT team and try to kill them.”
Why, exactly, does Hanna do that when, as her father points out, they have all they need right there? Hanna knows that Marissa — an equally ruthless agent of some unnamed CIA-like U.S. government agency — will descend on her, stopping only when one or the other of them is dead. That’s the first thing Erik taught his daughter.
In the meantime, however, Wright has come up with one heck of an excuse to go to the multiplex. In short order, “Hanna” turns into a classic popcorn movie, subclassification: chase flick. Eat with one hand, because you’ll need the other to hang on to your seat, as the film lunges from Finland to Morocco to Spain to Germany, where Erik and his daughter have agreed to rendezvous. The cinematography is eye-popping, culminating in a surreal sequence set in a derelict Berlin amusement park.
Who exactly is Hanna? And why does Marissa want her so badly? Those are just a couple of the film’s many mysteries, which writers Seth Lochhead and David Farr unravel at just the right pace. There’s also some welcome comic relief, courtesy of an English family on holiday that Hanna hitches a ride with. Jessica Barden (so wonderful in “Tamara Drewe”) is a treat as the family’s smart-mouthed teenage daughter and, briefly, Hanna’s first real friend.
One mystery the film doesn’t handle so well: Why should we care? Ronan makes about as much of Hanna as she can, given the character’s strange heartlessness. But there’s a troubling emptiness at the center of the movie, too. For a while at least, the best thing about it isn’t Marissa’s globetrotting hunt for Hanna, but Hanna’s search for herself.
Is it a great movie? No. **** questions and plot holes start appearing the minute the endorphins and adrenaline wear off.
But it isn’t a bad one, either. At one point, someone asks Marissa — who has a compelling reason to care what kind of person Hanna turns into — whether the girl we see in the movie turned out like Marissa had hoped. “Better,” she says icily.
In balance, I’d agree.
For months, the preview for Hanna played before everything I saw and to be honest it intrigued me. Unfortunately, it's just one of those film where all the good stuff is in the previews. Hanna is a special girl, wanted by The C.I.A., so since birth, her father hid her in a cabin in the North Pole. He trained her to be an ultimate weapon, to fight the people who sought her out, but as a result she had no idea about how the world worked. The only positive thing I could take away from this film was the performance of Saoirse Ronan, who was simply amazing. At 19, this girl isn't just a martial arts expert, but she speaks like a dozen languages. She is just as special and amazing as the character she was portraying and it's unfortunate that her skills were wasted in such a bomb of a movie. I don't think I've ever seen a slower moving, more boring action film in my life. Nothing is explained to you until much later on and by that point, you just really don't care anymore and want the film to be over. It's just one uncomfortable interaction after another, with seemingly no point, until the films disappointing climax. The actress was really talented and they could have done so much more with her, instead of putting her in a film, where she's running around like a chicken with her head cut off. I mean really, the story could not have been more thin and the supporting cast couldn't possibly have been any less helpful to the story. Hanna has an interesting star, but is ultimately a complete waste of time.
Hanna reminds me of a brutal roller coaster. It promises to be fun but all the garish lights, relentlessly droning music and hyperactive movements eventually have you begging to get off before the ride has finished. With all the strobing lights, weird munchkin sets, swooping cameras and fast cuts I genuinely felt nauseous at times. It did have enough entertainment value for one sitting but ultimately Hanna is a movie I never want to see again.