Hanna Review

I was lucky enough to go watch a pre-screening of Hanna this last week. I have to say that I quite enjoyed it. Here’s my take on it.
Hanna’s premise is quite simple, She’s a girl who is sheltered and raised in the forest by her dad to become the ultimate killing and hunting machine. Throw a little murder mystery (even though it’s fairly predictable) and government conspiracy into the mix and you have Hanna.
The leads in the movie are Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana. Cate Blanchett plays the villain and she does a fairly good job. Her villain tends to operate behind the scenes and sends everyone out to do her dirty work and she brings a gun to a fist-fight, so she’s kind of a cheap bitch. Eric Bana plays mentor and father to Hanna. Not much is known about him, but more is slowly revealed. Although he is not too interesting in the story, but his action scenes are VERY fun to watch. and Saoirse plays the titular Hanna. Quite, cute and apparently German, Hanna knows nothing of the real world apart from dictionary facts. Seeing her grow and experience the world is quite fun, as well as seeing her take down three men twice her size.
Like I said, the story is actually quite simple, and the plot twists are given away by the plot itself before the movie reveals them. Essentially you have Hanna who has to fight Marissa (Blanchett) as some sort of birthright fight for revenge… I think. She’s trained to be an elite soldier and hunter by her Father Eric Heller (Bana). She’s chased all the way from Finland to Morocco and to Germany by Marissa and her (gay?) German thugs. Really, the plot just serves as a connection for some wicked fight scenes.
The Fight scenes and Soundtrack are what really stand out here. Fight scenes are choreographed by by the same person who did The Bourne Trilogy fights. So expect fluid, powerful and tricky urban fights. Featuring very few guns, the fights are mostly hand to hand, and not really taking advantage of the surroundings, the fights are more brutal than flashy. My one disappointment is that early on it’s hinted that Hanna is a hunter, I was hoping to see more Hunter/Prey style fights and chases, but I didn’t get that. Instead I found out how well Hanna can hide. How well she can hide and NOT slash someone’s ankle tendons… gosh.
The soundtrack is great. I can describe it as Grunge Techno if that even makes sense. Composed by The Chemical Brothers, expect deep bass and some catchy beats. The music gives the whole movie a little of a sci-fi conspiracy feel, which if that’s what they wanted, then they certainly achieved it.
Overall, the plot isn’t necessarily the strongest part (even though it has one  of the best full circle intro/outro sequence I’ve seen in a long time), but the performances are solid, music is fantastic and the fight choreography is great. Definitely a great spring movie, I’d watch it twice, even if just for the Fights and Music.