Verdict:
At one point, our hero and 3 other characters stand across from one another in a Mexican standoff. Then, in slow motion, they drop their guns and proceed to fight one another with dual wakizashi’s, because that approach has more “dignity”, according to our protagonist. This tells you most of what you need to know about Hitman.
Movies that are adaptations from popular games have a very high chance of failure and Hitman has not escaped those odds. Such adaptations are always tricky, because you need to know what to invoke from the game in order to please the fans and stay true to the source material, but you must also know what not to bring over because it doesn’t translate to the big screen or isn’t suitable for the wider audience. This comes on top of all the requirements needed to make a good film.
Agent 47 from the Hitman games is a ruthless character. Of course, the games gave the guy a dramatic childhood to make him more sympathetic and he won’t kill civilians for no reason, but he is still a murderer for money; he is not a heroic character; he has a dead stare. The movie can’t have a character like that go about his business, killing people in various creative ways.
In such a situation, to turn a hitman into a protagonist (which is a ridiculous concept), Hollywood will usually make him a victim, give him some lady to selflessly defend, and show him kill only criminals. Hitman, the movie, ticks these boxes to varying degrees of success. Our hero is still shown klling cops and civilians, for example. This sets a strange tone.
The script is where is where the movie completely comes apart. The story about a conspiracy is both needlessly complex and utterly forgettable. Its primary purpose is to give Agent 47 a female companion and to move him to the next action set piece.
There is an overall poor attention to detail, which might be down to poor editing. The beats within each scene feel uneven and full of nonsense, like Agent 47 being briefed about his next assassination mission in broad daylight in a public space on a laptop with a briefing screen from the game, which includes the game’s logo in the background.
The dialogue is neither well written nor does it flow well within a scene. It actually sounds similar to what you would hear in the games, but in the movie, it comes off as cheesy and exposition heavy.
The action is probably the movie’s strongest point, but it is still average. Many quick cuts result in a disorienting presentation. And of course, screenplay problems don’t stop when the action starts. At the same time, the action scenes are put in interesting exotic locations and make creative use of the sets.
Timothy Olyphant does a decent enough job as our Agent 47. Considering the fact that the role requires many dead stares, Timothy brings a surprising amount of subtle intensity to the agent’s rage. He does a good job with what little he is given to work with, and his performance is a highlight of this production.
Agent 47’s companion, played by Olga Kurylenko, serves primarily as a plot device for him to defend from the bad guys and is very underdeveloped. Her relationship with our murderer is not special. To make a relationship like that work would require a lot of development and subtlety, given that Agent 47 is meant to be a brainwashed emotionless machine. You’re not going to find that kind of quality here.
While the editing leaves much to be desired, the movie overall looks alright. Agent 47 travels around, primarily around Eastern Europe, so you get that exotic feel of a globe-trotting adventure. The sets are atmospheric, especially once they are destroyed.
I guess the point is that it could’ve been much worse. Action sequences are entertaining, the performances are not bad, and the sets look good, but it is hard to recommend this movie to anyone. I don’t know how much of a Hitman fan you have to be to sit through this. Hitman ends up being one of those game to movie adaptations you’ve seen in the past. At least Uwe Boll didn’t direct this one.