Hanna

So I had wanted to see this movie since I saw the trailer a few months ago. It looked like a nice action flick with a unique plot line. I was not expecting a masterpiece of film - which is exactly what this film turned out to be. The movie opened up earlier this month in the second spot and has already made over half of it's $30 million budget to date.

The film revolves around a 16 year old girl, Hanna, who is trained to be the perfect assassin by her father in the wilderness. When she reaches the end of her training, she is sent on a mission to avenge her mother's death and escape the capture of ruthless CIA agents in the meantime. Eric Bana plays the father to Hanna, Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett plays the CIA agent.

In it's simplest form, the plot is a basic cat and mouse action film. However, the characters are unique and the storyline is very believable. The plot somehow keeps the action intense in almost every moment of the movie. Key elements are revealed at appropriate times that make the suspense believable, instead of the run of the mill antagonistic final speech at the end of the movie to reveal the master plan. The plot is somewhat unique in that it employs a young girl as the perfect assassin and puts different dynamics with the different characters in the movie.

The cinematography for this movie was simply amazing. Something the trailer did not focus on at all. The lighting in this movie was just sick. There were numerous strobe light effects and panned lighting that were just beautiful on screen and obviously most definitely extremely had during production. I really enjoyed the lighting in this movie, but of course this usually is not a focus of most movie-goers. The camera angles in this movie was also so gorgeous and unpredictable. They mirrored the mood and suspense of the film without being visually distracting - which is a hard thing to do when dealing with avant garde -esque angles. It was just spot on. The sets used in the film were also strikingly beautiful. The score was also done very well and used an electronic theme but was in keeping with the mood of the film. I could go on and on about the cinematic elements in this movie. A plus.

The actors did a superb job. Obviously Saoirse Ronan was the standout in the movie. Only 17 in real life, she did a fantastic job - although this was expected given her great performance in Atonement several years ago. Some props should be given to the language coaches for this movie. Although I'm in no means an expert on different languages, they all sounded quite fluid in the movie from my perspective at least. Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett were cast very well in the movie and did great with their performances. They gave their characters a little bit of edge instead of leaving them static and plot devices.

Overall, this movie really had it all. A great storyline, suspense, beautiful and artistic cinematography, and a great cast. What else could you ask for? I was not expecting this at all. This was a very believable and entertaining action movie and it somehow stayed PG13? I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys believable action movies such as these and they can get an added dose of great filmmaking in the meantime! "What did your mother die of? "Three bullets" -- Hanna