Hitman, the first adaptation of the hit video game of the same name, was a fairly pedestrian action film that criminally underused Timothy Olyphant. What should’ve been his big break into stardom was delayed, as he would later carry Justified to exceptional heights. In comparison to Hitman: Agent 47, the second attempt at a film franchise based off the hit video game series, Hitman is an action masterpiece.
Simple premise. Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) is a badass killer searching for the man behind his genetically modified gifts for violence. On his trail is John Smith (Zachary Quinto). All isn’t what it seems, of course, and the plot twists and turns in what should be a 90 minute R-rated orgy of violence.
Unfortunately the film is just action sequences with no meaning; the film wants to be cool and stylized, with minimal sequences between, but unfortunately this isn’t a film like Crank where the lead is so charismatic that the minimal character development works. Friend is a good actor but unfortunately Agent 47 is a cold, charisma hole of a character and the paper mache thin plot and actors provided aren’t enough for Friend to really bring anything but a warm body to the role.
The film works on the premise that the action sequences alone will carry the film and unfortunately there’s nothing there we haven’t seen done before. The film wants to be similar to a film like The Raid in that it wants to sell itself more on action than character development, and is about as rancid. There isn’t anything new with the latest Hitman try; the character has the same problem as The Punisher did both times it tried to turn itself into a franchise. The character is a sociopath who murders indiscriminately, thus there has to be some interesting story to it to make it an interesting film.
Unfortunately the film just goes for slick action sequences instead and there’s nothing new or interesting about them.
The film is exceptionally violent, which is a change from the bloodless violence of most summer action films, but unfortunately all the blood in the world doesn’t change the lack of substance to the film. This is action for the sake of, without anything to build between, and as such it gets tedious after awhile. It’s marginally over 90 minutes, so at least it’s short, but this isn’t a film that’s necessity to own or rent.
A handful of EPK pieces, some deleted scenes and nothing else of consequence.
20th Century Fox presents Hitman: Agent 47. Directed by Aleksander Bach . Written by Skip Woods and Michael Finch . Starring Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, Ciaran Hinds. Run Time: 96 minutes Rated R. Released on DVD: 12.29.2015
