Review of Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) by Mark M — 19 Aug 2015

Directed by first time feature film director Aleksander Bach, and based on IO Interactive's Hitman video game series, Hitman: Agent 47 is the second attempt by 20th Century Fox to bring the titular bald assassin clone to the big screen after the commercially successful 2007 film. To aid in rebooting the film after the critically panned first film, Agent 47 has the first Hitman film's hack screenwriter, Skip Woods, returning to provide the story and screenplay for this film, because that worked out well the first time.

Loosely adapting elements from the video games, Woods primary focus remains on writing the action, as he forgoes narrative depth, character motivations and development in exchange for a chance to overwhelm the viewer's sensory with shooting, explosions and carnage. If the first Hitman film is of any indication, Hollywood does not understand how to translate a video game into a film. The usual approach involves ripping the spine out from a video game, and then using it as a prop in an action film. And it shows in this film, which was produced and co-written by Skip Woods, the brains behind such gems as X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), and Sabotage (2014).

As far removed from the silent assassin Agent 47 in the video games as possible, this film's Agent 47 - played by Rupert Friend - delights in obnoxiously showing his face to extras, all whilst blasting his way from one action set piece to another in a torrential hail of gunfire, while Friend's co-stars, Hannah Ware and Zachary Quinto, force performances out of what little material there is to work with. Even if Marco Beltrami's composition is a worthy alternative to Jesper Kyd's iconic orchestral, electronic scoring from the video games, strip away any superficial resemblance to IO Interactive's acclaimed stealth video game series (the character, the codename, the suit, the agency), and what is left behind is a mangled ghoul, intent on prancing around in the skin and suit of the iconic Agent 47.

Wedged in the exit wounds left by the action sequences, director Bach's background in music videos is plentiful, as he captures the slick aesthete from Berlin to Singapore's Gardens by the Bay, and beyond the isolated instances that display 47's prowess in planning ahead, along with the semi-coherent close-quarters combat - owing to John Wick's David Leitch - despite the gratuitous shaky camera effect and jump cuts, Hitman: Agent 47 simply isn't a fun action caper, as much as "fun" is an overused, repetitive, stale adjective in describing a film. For fans, there is nothing 'fun' in watching an iconic stealthy character engage in a shootout in broad daylight in the middle of a city. For casual cinema patrons, there is nothing 'fun' about Agent 47, because everything it attempts to do as an action blockbuster, every other blockbuster this summer has delivered tenfold.

Lacking the theatrical, operatic, dark nuance of its source material, the film is yet another loud, cacophonous live-action adaptation of a beloved video game series that is naturally beset by the malady of Hollywood bastardization, twisting the source material into a bloated, inartistic monstrosity. In the skillful hands of a screenwriter and a director with a passion for the source material, a Hitman film could be an electrifying thriller, as 47 looms in the shadows, silently creeping through each scene in various disguises hunting for his prey, or as an introspective look into the traditionally cold, morally grey character. But alas, the generic Hitman: Agent 47 lacks the intelligence to be anything more than a trite shoot 'em up.