Movie review: Hanna
May. 3rd, 2011 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseAction movies aren't my favorite genre. I've nothing inherently against them; I simply prefer stories with a certain level of depth of character and plot, and by their nature, most action movies won't fit those qualifications - it's tough to spend much time on character development when you're spending most of your running time on elaborately choreographed fight sequences.
Hanna is something of a rare beast in its own genre. Not only are the aforementioned elaborately choreographed fight sequences remarkably artistic in their concept and execution, but it manages to double as a surprisingly effective coming-of-age tale as well. There may not be as many chase scenes as the usual action-movie goer might expect from such a movie, but the ones present are high-quality enough to be worth waiting for - and the moments in between, focused on the heroine's journey of self-discovery, make her far more human and compelling than most action-movie protagonists.
One of the things Brian and I both commented on was how European the movie felt in its sensibilities. Part of this was the lack of gore - for an story where people are consistently fighting hand-to-hand, getting shot, and dying in other, slightly more creative ways, there's remarkably little onscreen blood or death. (The only scene I can think of that was bloody beyond a trickle or a spatter concerned the remains of a death that was some time past; and when a death blow was part of the script, usually the camera held the subject just long enough to give you the idea before cutting away for the actual blow.) But what I appreciated even more was the way that, unlike most American films, the director was content to use a bit of subtlety. There are a couple of running themes involving Hanna's journey - one comparing it to a fairy-tale, another using her discovery of different forms of music as a parallel to her discovery about the world around her - but both are woven in fairly naturally, and are more of an accessory to the story than something it beats you over the head with. Similarly, unlike most American action films, this one doesn't beat you over the head with plot points or motivations, which allows a certain level of ambiguity in the characters and their actions that makes them feel far more human.
And while this doesn't have much bearing on the story itself, the soundtrack was noticeably excellent - many of the setpieces were set to some kind of German-sounding techno, which (combined with the fantastic use of light and camera angles) gave it almost the feel of a rave. Were I a drug-taking sort, I'd probably try watching it on E. :)
It still didn't grab me emotionally the way my favorite movies do, but I was favorably impressed and would absolutely recommend it to fans of the genre or anyone looking for some well-done escapist entertainment. A-
Hanna is something of a rare beast in its own genre. Not only are the aforementioned elaborately choreographed fight sequences remarkably artistic in their concept and execution, but it manages to double as a surprisingly effective coming-of-age tale as well. There may not be as many chase scenes as the usual action-movie goer might expect from such a movie, but the ones present are high-quality enough to be worth waiting for - and the moments in between, focused on the heroine's journey of self-discovery, make her far more human and compelling than most action-movie protagonists.
One of the things Brian and I both commented on was how European the movie felt in its sensibilities. Part of this was the lack of gore - for an story where people are consistently fighting hand-to-hand, getting shot, and dying in other, slightly more creative ways, there's remarkably little onscreen blood or death. (The only scene I can think of that was bloody beyond a trickle or a spatter concerned the remains of a death that was some time past; and when a death blow was part of the script, usually the camera held the subject just long enough to give you the idea before cutting away for the actual blow.) But what I appreciated even more was the way that, unlike most American films, the director was content to use a bit of subtlety. There are a couple of running themes involving Hanna's journey - one comparing it to a fairy-tale, another using her discovery of different forms of music as a parallel to her discovery about the world around her - but both are woven in fairly naturally, and are more of an accessory to the story than something it beats you over the head with. Similarly, unlike most American action films, this one doesn't beat you over the head with plot points or motivations, which allows a certain level of ambiguity in the characters and their actions that makes them feel far more human.
And while this doesn't have much bearing on the story itself, the soundtrack was noticeably excellent - many of the setpieces were set to some kind of German-sounding techno, which (combined with the fantastic use of light and camera angles) gave it almost the feel of a rave. Were I a drug-taking sort, I'd probably try watching it on E. :)
It still didn't grab me emotionally the way my favorite movies do, but I was favorably impressed and would absolutely recommend it to fans of the genre or anyone looking for some well-done escapist entertainment. A-
