This was a hugely shallow attempt at making a cyber crime thriller. I can't understand how director Michael Mann could have botched this up, but then I remember what he did in Miami Vice and Public Enemies and I realize I should have known better. Blackhat had the potential of being a cyber thriller, but instead it was squandered by not pushing the envelope. Too much is overly sentimentalized with the characters of Nicholas Hathaway and Chen Lien (Chris Hemsworth & Tang Wei) sharing their love like two adolescents in many, many scenes. Those scenes bog down the movie tremendously.
As a thriller it doesn't thrill in the way you'd expect. Everything is in slow-mo as emotions run high for atmosphere and "action" runs low to bore the audience. Including the acting. Everyone seemed to be phoning in their acting chops here including Chris Hemsworth who seems oddly out of place in this. Like as if Michael Mann wanted Brad Pitt, but had to settle for Chris instead.
If I had to give one little positive to this mess it would be that the camerawork was amazing. There are many shots in this movie that were beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the story or acting.
1/10