Hitman - Review

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Length: 100 min

Rated: R

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Release Date: 2007-11-21

Starring: Timothy Olyphant (Agent 47), Dougray Scott, Robert Knepper, Olga Kurylenko, Ulrich Thomsen, Michael Offei

Directed by Xavier Gens

Produced by Adrian Askarieh, Luc Besson, Chuck Gordon, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

Written by Skip Woods

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Josh Tyler : 2007-11-20 21:49:16

An adaptation of the popular videogame of the same name, Hitman is exactly the kind of movie you’d expect it to be. The bad kind. It’s incredible that after all this time Hollywood still hasn’t been able to figure out the videogame to movie genre. Maybe they don’t think they have to since the movies make tons of money anyway, but as a gamer myself it sure would be nice if filmmakers would start taking us seriously. Or perhaps I should say it would be nice if someone hired a serious filmmaker to make one of these movies.

That hasn’t happened yet, and so we’re stuck with videogame movies done by cinematic cellar dwellers like Paul W.S. Anderson, Uwe Boll, and in this case Xavier Gens. He directs Hitman from a script by Skip Woods, a script which doesn’t do him any favors. It’s as shallow and empty as it is convoluted and confusing in telling the story of Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) a bald, bar-coded killer for hire.

There’s a halfhearted attempt to develop a back story for 47 in the film’s opening credits, but for the most part he leaps on to the screen as is. We never really understand who he is, what he is, or why he does what he does and Gens doesn’t seem to care. I learned more about Olyphant’s hitman character in the film’s trailers than I did during the running time of the movie itself. The trailers talk about 47 as an agent of a disavowed brotherhood of the Catholic Church, and allude to a secret religious conspiracy, all of which seems interesting. None of that is in the movie. Instead, we get a bald guy who we’re told is a member of an “organization” and simply walks around shooting people, without any obvious motivation, and with a life that begins when you enter the theater and ends when you walk out of it. He’s given no history, no personality. 47 is a walking, talking, killing robot and we never get to know him.

Because we don’t know who he is, his actions are often confusing. 47 is on a mission, the mission goes wrong, and a lot of people are trying to kill him. We don’t really know why, and though the film is filled with plot revelations none of them seem to add up to anything. Even after the movie, I’d be hard pressed to tell you what I saw. There was this bald guy, he shot a bunch of people, then he drove away. Interpol is after him, some people he kills, others he lets live for no other reason than that it would make him too unsympathetic to kill one of the good guys. He saves a girl named Nika (Olga Kurylenko) too, because apparently he has a thing for facial tattoos, and because the movie needed a way to work in some gratuitous nudity. At least it’s good gratuitous nudity. Olga Kurylenko is built like a gazelle.

What I’m getting at here is obvious: Nika’s luscious legs aside, Hitman is an unmitigated mess. The script is a disaster, the plot is a waste of time, and the characters aren’t just unsympathetic, they’re empty, hollow shells which are little better than computer generated constructs. I’m not sure why they bothered with flesh and blood actors.

The movie has one thing going for it and one thing only: It looks pretty. Gens has a real flair for gritty, Euro-trash and the film drips with dark contrasts and long, lingering, gorgeous slow-motion shots littered with bullets. His characters are dressed in dark contrasting colors which really pop on screen, and he makes full use of that, framing each shot carefully and contrasting Olyphant’s shiny bald head with his surroundings.

If only all that great cinematography had been used on some sort of mind-blowing action sequence I might have been able to forgive the film’s muddled mess of a script. But Hitman can’t even accomplish that. Most of the movie’s action boils down to a guy standing and posing with guns. There’s a sword fight between hitmen, but it comes off like a spatula fight. In the face of real action movies like The Bourne Ultimatum and Live Free or Die Hard, Hitman’s action isn’t that exciting. I kept waiting for the film to hit its big, defining moment; kept waiting for that big, penultimate action sequence; kept waiting for the plot to unravel and make sense. It never happened, and I wish Hitman hadn’t either.

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redwingsguy96
October 22, 2008 at 22:32

Whoever wrote this review was way too harsh. Despite the miscues the movie has it is still a decent depiction of Agent 47, I enjoyed it, and this is coming from a highly critical, diehard Hitman fan. What this guy doesn't understand is that the movie was made for the fans and we already know about the backstory- his upbringing, the Agency, etc... there's really no need for a description, while I agree it'd be nice for anyone new to Hitman to explain everything I never had a problem that it wasn't included, as I said I already knew everything. And its cool that the movie takes place 'right in the middle' of 47's career, most of the games do the same thing. I agree though that the plot can be more than a bit confusing, you'll have to watch it a few times to get the whole thing...it moved too fast, and there was little buildup. The movie was too short as well, I felt they could've crammed in more. By the way 47's a Hitman, stealth is his weapon, "no action scenes" *bah* he's not going to burst into a room and start shooting everyone like other mindless action movies. The action was used smartly, in small doses, like 47 himself. Something that this guy doesn't understand, another Hollywood C*cks*cker that doesn't bother to do his homework. 47 is supposed to be a robot moron, he emotionless, there is nothing but the job to him. He was designed that way to be a more effective killer.

A few things I wish they could of incorperated more into the movie was more complicated hits and disguizes. Afterall 47 is the master of deception but they only had him disguized in a couple of short scenes, plus the hits were fairly basic...not much creativity compared to the games. And finally there's Timothy Olyphant. My reaction to Olyphant (just like the movie) was mixed at first, especially with his voice, he really sounds nothing like 47...but in the end I felt he nailed the emotionless character very well. Could a better actor of been found?...maybe, but overall I felt Olyphant paid the classic videogame character great respect with his performance...so the Hitman critics who disliked Olyphant from the beginning are purely wrong and should give him his props for pulling off the character.

In the end I knew they wouldn't top the game, no game-movie I think ever will. Fans are too in-love with their video game heroes to give justice to a movie like this. I was just hoping for a decent depiction, and we got it. Since its all about the character in the firstplace from a video game standpoint it was good, but not great.

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thricedmn
March 18, 2008 at 23:00

this movie was the dumbest movie i've ever seen, mortal kombat was even better, i throw it in the trash with aeon flux and bloodrayne. this movie had the most obviously dumb concepts in it ever.

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Mendell
December 11, 2007 at 14:10

Even if it could have been way better, I have to say like drake_55: its the best videogame to movie film so far (or that I can remember). Still, I thought it was good

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bonzo wunderfuzz
December 4, 2007 at 14:52

And you are what? 13 years old?

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drake_55
December 4, 2007 at 13:24

Hitman was ok. there was enough action in it to prevent it from getting boring. there was good action. its the best videogame to movie film so far. way better than mortal kombat for instance. that was horrible. but hitman was good in my opinion.

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Kanelordofgames
November 26, 2007 at 11:21

this was a terrible movie it totally killed the game omg this movie sucked big time this brings a tear to the eye of every gamer

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Serious Bob
November 21, 2007 at 18:01

Now tell us what you really think. lol. Good review.

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