From the director of “The Last of the Mohicans,”, “Heat,”, and “Collateral,” Mann adds his usual Mann-erisms with his newest suspense thriller starring Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”)  and Viola Davis (“The Help”).

“Blackhat” follows hacker convict Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) being recruited by the F.B.I. task force led by Agent Carol Barrett (Viola Davis) to track down a mystery hacker that is wreaking havoc across the world.

This is a film that hearkens back to the days when movies were not all about expensive special effects and incoherent action. “Blackhat” strives on being an old-school mystery thriller that relies on excellent storytelling, believable performances, and intense action set pieces.

Hemsworth being casted in the lead role as Hathaway is more positive than negative. The positives: Hemsworth looks great on screen and has a certain amount of charm that is added to his character, and makes the audience believe that Hathaway is an actual person.

The negatives: Hathaway does not receive much character development and remains a clichéd protagonist for much of the 134 minute running time.

Other characters in the film such as Hathaway’s best friend Chen Dawai (Wang Leehom) do not add much to the film, other than to provide a friendship that does not add any dimension to the film.

Chen Lien (Tang Wei), the sister of Dawai and love interest for Hathaway is an interesting character, but also does not add much to the film. The relationship between Lien and Hathaway is not believable and can be seen as a useless plot device.

Supporting characters such as Viola Davis’ Agent Carol Barrett offer great performances and some comic relief. Although, the real downside to the characters is the antagonist, who is supposed to be someone that the audience fears, but turns out to be a clichéd character as well with no uniqueness or realistic motivation.

With this being a Michael Mann film, the visuals are a feast for the eyes. Shots of city skyscrapers from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and bustling festivals in Jakarta are impressively done immersing the audience into the atmosphere of the film.

With a running time of two hours and fourteen minutes, the pacing is deliberately slow as the first hour drags on. However, once the second hour kicks in, the film only exceeds in getting better

The film offers intriguing plot twists and story elements that may catch the viewer by surprise. The action is also intense with very little special effects and while Mann does shake the camera, the action is coherent and the “shaky cam” is used efficiently. With this also being a hacker film, the audience does not have to be tech-savvy to understand what is happening in the movie. If the viewer does happen to get lost, everything is basically explained through exposition from the characters.

The music in the film composed by award winning composer Harry Gregson-Williams, Atticus and Leo Ross is nothing special, but the music does have its moments that intensify the action scenes and quieter dramatic moments.

As mentioned before, this is a film that hearkens back to a more old-school approach that relies on story and the leading actors to make it believable. While this may not be Mann’s best film, it is definitely not his worst.

This is a movie for a specific demographic that may not please everyone. It is a slow paced mystery thriller with some intense action and intriguing plot twists with some good performances from its cast. This is definitely not a film that should be skipped over by any means.