Don’t let the name fool you, Hanna an action movie. I’m having a difficult time summing up the story without giving anything away. Basically, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones) only knows of life with her father, Erik (Eric Bana, Munich), who raises her to be an assassin in the harsh artic forest of Finland. A CIA agent (Cate Blanchett, Lord of the Rings) is out to find the pair of them and let’s nothing get in her way.
After seeing so many dramatic films lately, it was really fun to see a straight-up action movie. The fight scenes were fantastic and it was really amazing to see Hanna kicking ass. Saoirse Ronan was incredibly believable in the role without compromising her innocence. (scene SPOILER) One of the best scenes was her in a room trying to make sense of all the electrical gadgets. Hanna has never seen a light bulb or watched television, and suddenly she’s overwhelmed by everything around her and runs away. The film only briefly touches on this and you can see that it’s something that would almost have been better to leave out because it makes you really want to see more of it.
The locations chosen were beautiful and a perfect backdrop for each scene. The world has only been white snow for Hanna, so when she ventures out and she’s in Morocco, the beautiful colors of the villages really engage her senses and you experience that along with her on screen. Any scene with Hanna is filled with brilliant colors, but the scenes with Marissa, the CIA agent, the colors are darker and gray. It’s subtle, but just enough to establish a mood.
The soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers, really took the action scenes to another level. It was almost a bit much at times, but ultimately it worked with what was going on and really made me feel an adrenaline rush as the scenes were happening.
Director Joe Wright kept the pace but there are lots of questions unanswered and it really feels like they are setting it up for a sequel that will never happen. It was a great action film but I wish the story had been developed more. I wanted to know more of what was going on.
Rating: Non-stop actionfest with an interesting story that could have gone further. 6/10
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