Hanna (2011)

Hanna (PG-13)

"Have Bow, Will Travel"

Quirky, yes. Fiercely Independent, yes.  Entertaining... not quite. It's a mish-mash of scenes you've already seen (although held down and it's bloody teeth pulled). It's a buffet of cartoon cliches and plots devices you've heard before, albeit in an often amusing and extremely offbeat European way. It's not a thrill ride and it's not a quirky family roadtrip Indy film. It just wants to be both, desperately. The film is beautiful, the Chemical Brothers soundtrack picks it up and throws it down in spots, and the two female leads dominate the acting by portraying their parts admirably. No matter how often I was surprised or impressed by the film's stylistic choices, it just never got past feeling like the studio equivalent of busy work, making something with no true purpose and no real ambition but still doing it pretty well.  In the end  I think most people will be disappointed by the almost complete lack of action while at the same time unsatisfied with how little it actually ends up saying, new or otherwise.

 5 Re-curve bows out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)