Film review - Hitman: Agent 47

Film - Hitman: Agent 47

Directed by: Aleksander Bach
Cast: Rupert Friend, Ciarin Hind, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto
Rating: **1/2

What's it about: 
Ruthless assassin Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) gets his orders to execute two targets: a girl and a guy. The guy, John Smith (Quinto) is an assassin himself; the girl Katia Von Dees (Hannah Ware) is seemingly a pawn in the whole affair. Both sides are seeking out her father, a genetic scientist in hiding. She has no idea where he is and has been sparing no effort in seeking him out herself even if she doesn't know why.

What's hot: 
Rupert Friend is efficient as 47. Not quite as much as Timothy Olyphant (far, far, better actor who played it in an earlier Hitman film), though. In any case, the only character he shows is in the film's second half, when a clueless Katia (played by Hannah Ware) needs to step up to her true potential (don't ask) in a hurry and our man has no patience. There are a few Marvel-reminiscent silent moments (like in the lift in the Syndicate building and when Katia tells 47 what she does when she can't sleep) but these are few and far between. The action scenes and car chases are second to none. The cinematography is superb. And the background music is quite likeable.

What's not:
Plenty. Quinto is too reminiscent of Sylar, a character he played on Heroes. And that's the first thing that comes to mind when his character unravels bit by bit. Clueless Katia takes too long to find her way to her father (the better part of two hours), who she has several questions for. Hitman, which is based on the popular video game, pays too much importance to the way the iconic guns are placed. The interrogation room scene in the embassy has a weak hat-doff to Rorschach's (from The Watchmen) famed "you're locked in here with me" line. It ends like you'd expect, but the odds are too one-sided. And such a theme -- unfeeling genetically enhanced human killers finding a heart -- has become something of a trope by now. 

What to do:
By the end, you feel almost as vacant and blank as 47. There's the hint of a sequel, so don't walk out as the end credits roll. Wait for the one that comes mid-credit. And wonder why. This is a good enough example of what could have been, but wasn't.