Reviewed by: Harrison Cheung —
One of last year’s guilty pleasures was the action movie KICK-ASS, which was a clever send-up of big studio action hero franchises like SUPERMAN and BATMAN. In KICK-ASS, people without any superpowers end up fighting crime. And the scene-stealer from KICK-ASS was the pint-sized 12-year old girl who went by the name ‘Hit Girl’ and was pretty deadly with firearms and butterfly knives. From LA FEMME NIKITA to KILL BILL, movie goers love it when it’s a heroine who kicks ass.
Now along comes the highly watchable HANNA, another great revenge fantasy in the form of a teenaged girl, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) who is raised in the wintry woods by her ex-CIA dad (Eric Bana) to assassinate the CIA operative (Cate Blanchette) who killed her mother.
Blanchette is a pleasure to watch as she chews up the scenery as the evil Marissa, a ruthless agent with a dental hygiene fetish that isn’t too far removed from Blanchette’s evil Russian agent, Irina, from INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.
Bana is surprisingly under-used as the determined and disciplined father.
But it is Ronan’s movie as a survivalist young girl – oddly reminiscent of a young Cate Blanchette – who makes the journey from the woods in Finland through the Moroccan desert and Germany as she tries to complete her father-assigned mission. Her father made her lethal, but once exposed to the real world, you can see her iciness melt – just a little – at the marvels she’s missed, like music, electricity, and family. 
This movie definitely feels European – more LA FEMME NIKITA meets PATHFINDER than POINT OF NO RETURN. When the Euro-industrial music begins pounding, you know it’s fight time! Fight scenes are brutal and knuckle-crunching – none of the choreographed dance moves currently in vogue. One of the best scenes in the film is this bizarre, almost David Lynch-like scene in the Berlin underground which involves dwarves, a street opera singer and music generated by abandoned garbage.
Directed with great verve by Joe Wright – a British director better known for costume dramas like ATONEMENT and PRIDE & PREJUDICE and written by first-timer, Canadian Seth Lochhead, HANNA is an unforgettable experience. And Saoirse Ronan is a new star.
Hanna, official movie site: http://www.hannathemovie.com/#/home