The best: The direction and the photography in most part of the film. The performances of Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett and especially Saoirse Ronan.The worst: The argument is more simplistic than it seems at first. The action scenes.

RELEASED IN 2011 and directed by Joe Wright, "Hanna" starts off in the wintery wilderness of northern Finland where an ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) has been training his teen daughter, the titular character (Saoirse Ronan), to survive in a harsh world of cutthroat government agents. When the girl's ready, she's introduced to the real world where she's ruthlessly hunted down from North Africa to Germany by a mysterious intelligence operative, Marissa (Cate Blanchett), and her heavies.What I like best about this movie is its uniqueness, stylishness and picturesque globetrotting. This is top-of-the-line filmmaking with a hip, kinetic, quirky tone and superlative score, comparable to "Lucy" (2014) and Tarantino thrillers like "Kill Bill" (2003/2004). It's not a great film because there's not enough depth or mindfood, but it contains a few elements of greatness and is overall entertaining enough.We learn Marissa is preoccupied with Hanna for unknown reasons; so, while she's an expert agent, this obsession is her kryptonite. Subtext-wise, the movie's an obvious metaphor for a child reaching adulthood and the agonies of being a loving parent (preparing them for the world, teaching them necessary skills to survive, giving them increasing freedom, being candid about the callousness of life). It's also somewhat of a fairytale about the relationship between a father and daughter. Later in the film Marissa asks Erik, "Why now?" and he simply replies, "Kids grow up." I liked the dichotomy of the so-called normal banality of the civilians compared to the single-minded cold-bloodedness of the agents. If you object to the sometimes unwieldy fight scenes, go parent a child, wait eighteen years, then view it again and see if you feel the same. The film's often thrilling, but don't approach this as a straight action flick or you'll probably be disappointed.There are low-key things that are clumsily explored, like the RV family perking Hanna's curiosity about life (remember she grew up isolated in the northern wilds), but this was an obvious mechanism to make us feel bad that she was on this life-or-death mission, and different than these "normal" kids, yet at the same time special and more exciting, which is how the daughter & kid brother viewed Hanna. The individual used as a tool is hardly innovative, but I nonetheless appreciated this take on it.THE FILM RUNS 111 minutes and was shot in Finland, Morocco and (mostly) Germany. WRITERS: Seth Lochhead & David Farr.GRADE: B+

Hanna is a modern day fairy tale, The Brothers Grimm meets Jason Bourne with plenty of lapses in logic.Saoirse Ronan is Hanna a teenage girl raised in the wilderness of Finland by her father, an ex-CIA operative Erik Heller (Eric Bana) who since her mother died raised her with the skills of an assassin. Erik realises that Hanna is at an age when she might be ready to see the outside world and the chaos this would bring.Cate Blanchett is a senior CIA agent Marissa Wiegler who wants to track down and kill them both. It seems Hanna was genetically modified in a secret CIA experiment many years earlier giving her exceptional abilities.Erik activated a beacon and leaves, instructing Hanna to meet him in Berlin. A CIA special forces team arrives to capture Hanna who is taken to an underground complex and escapes where Hanna seems to be very adept in surviving in the modern world such as using the internet when before she lived in a remote survivalist environment.Blanchett plays the wicked witch but we have little idea of her motives as to why she even kills innocent people. Once the action stops it becomes a rather derivative euro-plodding thriller. The Chemical Brothers soundtrack just reminds you that it wants to be a junior Jason Bourne.

Good action-thriller. Slow-building, gritty, plot is very intriguing. Too complex though, with many loose ends which never get tied up. A bit more explanation of certain aspects of the plot was called for, as it would have made the story more coherent. However, it was good that certain details weren't spoon-fed to the audience, being slowly bled in. Solid direction. Fight scenes are exciting, without being too plentiful and thus seeming to be the only focus of the movie (unlike many martial arts movies).Good performance from Saoirse Ronan in the lead role. Solid support from Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett.