Chris Hemsworth in recent years has evolved into a fan-favorite hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks to his turn as the God of Thunder in three Thor movies so far. With a fourth, Thor: Love and Thunder, coming in just a few months’ time. But that doesn’t mean even one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood is immune from the odd stinker or two. In fact, one such example from Hemsworth — the widely planned Blackhat — also happens to be one of the top Netflix movies in the US at the moment.
The plot for this title from 2015 is nothing new. “A convicted super-hacker is released from jail so he can help a team of American and Chinese experts track down a cyberterrorist,” reads the official Netflix summary. Never mind, of course, that American and Chinese experts teaming up to fight a cyberthreat sounds about as believable as a god who wields a hammer and controls thunder. And “super-hacker” seems like a term that only exists in the movies.
Blackhat, one of the top streaming movies in the US
Maybe that’s part of the reason why critics and viewers have ripped this movie to shreds (never mind that it’s #4 in the US today on Netflix).
Over at Rotten Tomatoes, Blackhat currently has an abysmal 32 percent critics’ score. That’s based on 191 reviews, like this one from the UK Observer: “A square-jawed, furrowed-browed, altogether joyless film, with a hero to match.” A different UK reviewer had this even harsher take: “It’s not very good. Some of it, in fact, is downright awful.”
Viewers, meanwhile, have been even more unkind to the movie, which also stars Wang Leehom, Tang Wei, and Viola Davis.
Based on more than 10,000 Rotten Tomatoes ratings at the moment, Blackhat has a god-awful 24 percent audience score. With some of the most recent takes from viewers including:
- Chris Hemsworth is the man, but the story line really sucked and even if they are trying to set up a second movie, leaving so many open plots is not good.
- It’s notoriously hard to make anything computer related interesting on-screen, something which Hackers is one of the few films to achieve.
- And that will lead to another clue, and THAT WILL LEAD TO ANOTHER CLUE … It’s like National Treasure had an emotionless Chinese cousin.
Top 10 Netflix movies
As we said, meanwhile, Blackhat is currently one of the top movies on Netflix in the US at the moment. The full list of the Netflix Top 10 movies for Tuesday, February 22, is available to peruse below — where you’ll find links to the titles, as well as to some of our recent coverage.
Among other things, The Tinder Swindler is still holding strong, as you’ll see below. While among the newest additions to the list is Netflix’s documentary about Boeing, which has gotten pretty strong reviews so far.
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and check out our coverage here and here)
- Despicable Me 2
- St. Vincent
- Blackhat
- The Tinder Swindler (read more about this movie everyone is still talking about here)
- Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
- Halloween
- Despicable Me
- Fistful of Vengeance
- Last Man Down
