Review of Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) by Dave M — 29 Dec 2015

Hollywood seems fascinated with hitmen. Over the decades, hitmen have popped up fairly regularly in movies that have included sci-fi ("The Terminator"),contemporary thrillers ("Collateral"), fictional dramas ("The Bodyguard"), dramas based on true stories ("The Iceman"), dark comedies ("In Bruges") and even no-holds-barred juvenile comedies (the "Dumb and Dumber" movies). The hitmen's motivations usually involve money, but also range from political ("The Gunman") to brainwashed ("The Manchurian Candidate") to straight-up sociopathic ("No Country for Old Men"). The actors who embodied these characters have been of different degrees of celebrity (from Jean Reno to Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson, Sylvester Stallone, Chow Yun-Fat, Keanu Reeves and even Tom Hanks), different races ("Pulp Fiction") and different genders ("Point of No Return"). 2015 offers us "Hitman: Agent 47" (R, 1:36) whose title character fits into several of these categories and is based on a video game series.

This film represents the second attempt to bring the small screen CGI character to living-breathing reality on the big screen. A 2007 "Hitman" movie starred a pre-"Justified" Timothy Olyphant in the lead role and made quadruple its budget in the U.S. alone. A planned sequel was cancelled, partly because Olyphant wasn't interested in making the movie. In early 2013, a reboot was announced, with Paul Walker attached to play the lead. The role was re-cast a couple months after Walker's sudden death in late 2013. Filming of the reboot finally began in February 2014.

In this American-German production, British actor Rupert Friend sheds his accent to play "47", a genetically-engineered hitman. He was part of a discontinued government program to turn children into adult assassins with heightened intelligence and physical capabilities, but without those hitman-hindering human qualities of fear and compassion. These agents don't have much in the way of personality, but they're extremely efficient and frighteningly lethal.

The film remains mostly true to the main character of the same name in the "Hitman" video games. 47 (so named because of the last two digits in the bar code on the back of his neck) wears the character's usual garb, consisting of a black suit, white shirt and red tie. That is, unless he has knocked someone out and stolen his clothes in an effort to blend in with the environment, an ability that's enhanced by his always cool and confident demeanor.

Still, this version of 47 is slightly more human than gamers are used to. Although he's basically as cold and calculating as the video game character, the film's 47 shows a little more of an ability to think for himself and sometimes betrays the faintest glimmer of humanity. Also, while still more efficient in the field than any flesh-and-blood assassin has a right to be, 47 isn't quite the perfect never-miss, never-lose agent that people familiar with the character may expect to see.

47 is given orders for two hits by his handler, Diana (Hong Kong-based actress and model Angelababy). The first step in the mission involves finding Katia van Dees (Hannah Ware), a young woman in Berlin who's tormented by feelings of fear and flashes of memory that she doesn't understand. It seems that Katia has ties to a Dr. Litvenko (Ciarán Hinds) whose research created the Agent program in the first place. An international crime organization called "Syndicate International" is more than a little interested in re-starting that program, which also has them looking for Katia as a way of finding the good doctor. Katia has suddenly become a very popular person. 47 and an agent called John Smith (Zachary Quinto) catch up to Katia at the same time in a scene reminiscent of the T-800 and Kyle Reese simultaneously finding Sarah Connor in 1984's "The Terminator".

There are more twists and turns in this movie's plot than a Cedar Point roller coaster, so, in my ongoing quest to avoid spoilers, I can only make some general statements about the rest of the story. Much of the film involves the cat-and-mouse game between competing organizations and those who support them. At stake is whether the Agent program will be able to restart and produce agents even more advanced than 47. This makes each group desperate to get to Litvenko before the other. Along the way, we see high-performance cars that would make the "Fast and Furious" gang jealous, both sides in this struggle utilize a variety of sophisticated and shiny weaponry and many people are killed, often in graphic and creative ways.

Most of the critics don't like "Hitman: Agent 47", but I think their criticisms are misguided. No, this isn't the most original hitman film ever produced and yes, some of the plot points are predictable, but focusing on those two issues is kind of short-sighted. This movie is simply very well-done. The casting and acting is solid, the characters are interesting, the action is fun and the cinematography is great. The script is smart and digs a little deeper than most actioners. A recurring theme in the movie involves being in control of your own destiny, regardless of what has happened in your past. One such exchange between two characters goes like this: "You can't fight against who you are. You'll lose," versus, "We determine who we are by what we do." If you can handle the violence and don't insist on complete originality in your action movies, you're likely to enjoy "Hitman: Agent 47", whether you're a gamer or not. "A-".