I was not looking forward to Kingsman: The Secret Service. When I first heard that it was adapted from a comic book miniseries by Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Nemesis,Wanted, Marvel's Civil War) my stomach churned. I've definitely enjoyed director Matthew Vaughn's (2004's Layer Cake, 2011's X-Men: First Class) work in the past. Still, my experience with Millar's portfolio has been plagued by interesting concepts that often get buried under too much juvenile blood n' guts excess to stick the landing and deliver on their initial promise.
Michael Mann’s Blackhat opens with a heavily computer generated map of the internal workings of a city nuclear power plant. Shifting perspectives, rushing along power lines and electrical circuits we are thrust into a complex interior system. As we rush into the final moments of the sequence, the lines finally run a blood red before exploding: this sets the scene for an international hacker thriller in which technology becomes a mirror for the human body as well as society itself.The incredible digital landscape of the opening sequence soars like the Beyond the Infinite sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey - but tactile, mechanical and fragile.