Hitman (15)
A genetically engineered, elite assassin is pursued across the globe by dogged Interpol agents. Until he discovers that his latest target was a set up and is forced to turn his sights on his own employers, known as ‘The Agency’.
Based on the Eidos game of the same name, Hitman’s Agent 47 is brought to life by actor Timothy Olyphant (Live Free or Die Hard) and also stars Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible 2). Scott players Interpol agent Mike Whittier, who has apparently been pursuing 47 for some time and is determined to get his man.
Performances by both leading actors leave little to be desired. But then, in a film where the plot and script are so magnificently thin, it’s maybe not so surprising.
What was surprising to me is that, for a film for which you presume the target audience would be fans of the game, it has taken so many liberties with the principal character and left out so much game content, that it just becomes irritating to watch.
The writer was obviously trying to give some depth to the proceedings. Injecting emotion into a character that quite simply doesn’t needed it, rather than giving us the calculating killing machine that you pay to see. The result is a rather watered down version of 47 and a tame, underachieving view of the Hitman world.
This, combined with a rambling plot, unexplained characters, hatchet job editing and some extremely bad dubbing, makes this another black mark against the game-to-film genre. It’s classic ‘style over substance’, so if style’s your thing, you may find something worth spending your money on.
It seems to me that if you’re planning to produce a game based flick, you might want to spend some time actually experiencing the game itself, in order to give the audience what they expect. Oh well...
Hitman fans: Disappointing
Newcomers: Unintelligible
2 out of 5
