Violence in ‘Blackhat’ not enough to disguise that Thor isn’t a nerd

“Blackhat” is about a blackhat hacker. Its brutal confrontation scenes are well-choreographed. Those games are well played. But all this is not enough to make you believe that Thor is a computer genius.

“Blackhat” begins with a terrible nuclear accident. This, by the way, is the most pro-Chinese movie I’ve ever seen. Response to the accident requires cooperation between the Chinese government and the American government. All of the sudden you’re viewing the Chinese military, who many have kind of mixed feelings about, as the good guys, they’re the cavalry.

This film’s biggest problem is that the lead actor who you often see in a climactic scene banging on the keyboard and looking up and down at a screen, is played by an action hero – not just any action hero – Chris Hemsworth of “Thor” fame. It’s really tough to overcome the idea that this is supposed to be some nerdy genius because this guy is big and he looks like a Norse god, he doesn’t look like a computer nerd.

This has a lot more action than typical hacker movies, and director Michael Mann did it that way because his computer nerd, the genius in prison who must be liberated, is played by Thor.

Mann has directed many interesting thrillers in the past and this too is a thriller. Mann seems to have this new obsession with showing mutilated corpses and pools of blood. The film includes truly brutal violence, because it turns out that Thor is also good at garroting people, stabbing them through the head at breaking their legs and arms.

Anyone with squeamishness should stay away.

There’s also a laughable romantic interest, played by Chinese actress named Wei Tang and you know immediately why she’s there. Because it’s Thor, there has to be a romantic interest.

This is one of these movies that makes no sense at all. And to top it off it has the misfortune of opening on the same day as a the wide release of a film that I considered the best of 2014: “American Sniper.”

“American Sniper” should be packed. Get your tickets early.