Dark Web - Kontrolle ist eine Illusion

It's rare to find a film, as unheard of and made for such a low budget as 'Hacker' was, be made with such a high degree of quality. From the opening moments it was clear this movie was going to be told with a lot of class. I suppose a film subject like hacking really wouldn't seem right told any other way. Still, that doesn't make it any easier to achieve.

The thing that probably surprised me the most about the film was how good the acting was. Callan McAuliffe in particular in the lead role was an absolute delight to watch go about his craft. A reasonable amount of the film was narrated by him too and not since Morgan Freeman in 'The Shawshank Redemption' can I remember such an ideal voice for such a thing. Daniel Eric Gold also thoroughly impressed me and I think it's fair to say there wasn't a weak link in the entire cast.

'Hacker' was a really fun watch. The pacing is terrific. It glides effortlessly from scene to scene and there is always plenty going on to keep the viewer entertained. The story structuring was also very well handled and the film ended in a very clever and interesting way. Altogether I was very impressed by 'Hacker' and would thoroughly recommend people to check it out.

For any real hackers (aspiring hackers, hacktivists, otherwise criminally engaged computer wizards, or simply people in general who know their stuff) it's probably best not to touch this movie... but to people who hardly know anything about the world of hacking, who can enjoy a lower tier "morally justified" heist movie, it might work pretty well.

That said, the plot is dull. Really dull. Perhaps not so much the plot itself, but rather the execution of it. It's pretty obvious (from the narration, the cast) that this movie was meant to piggyback on the hype-train of Mr. Robot. Whereas Mr. Robot actually goes into detail pretty accurately, there's hardly ANY hacking going on in this movie at all. It's just a bunch of scammer kids, with a very infantile approach to the hacking phenomenon. A mash-up of jargon, combined with really poor dialogues and acting skills in general. A "hacker" that isn't familiar with the Dark Web or Onion? I mean, really?

Apart from that, it has a nice pace with just enough going on, to maintain a certain entertainment value that made me watch it through to the end. I'm glad that I did, 'cause it has a nice twist at the end... albeit pretty far fetched.

The movie tried to portray how a life of a typical hacker would be with the usual suspects: a migrant who is rationally sleeping till a turning point in his family's life pops us which is generally related to finance. The usual suspects suddenly decides to awaken his sleeping cyborg and decides to be utilitarian just to end up in an existential circle. Also, it doesn't really reflect the mind of a hacker but rather a mind of someone who wants to get rich and regret later. Most of the hackers fight for a cause and they wouldn't back up. There are scenes in the movie that depict a hacker as being someone who rushes in his decisions and is not proactive about what would happen and does not assess the current situation on the spot in which the movie failed to give a close-to-reality snap on how a hacker react and assess a risk.

I saw this movie a few years ago. It was one of my favourites, before I became a software engineer. It's a great story and chain of events that leads to the center piece. A nice journey indeed, but this has nothing to do with hacking. I am giving it a 7 because of nostalgia. The real rating is more like a 5.9

Most Canadians speak with a distinctively American Accent, as opposed to British. Some Provinces do compare with a few Norther States of the US, but it is still a decidedly common way of speaking. Additionally, 'College' is common colloquial American for any study beyond High School, including University. The US has a diversity of dialects, North to South and East to West.

Summary: the goofs based on not sounding Canadian are in themselves goofs.