Hitman...definitely a miss in my opinion.
Hitman is the 2007 film adaption by director Xavier Gens of the video game series about agent 47.
Agent 47 is a hitman (as you may have guessed from the title of the film) who finds himself caught up in a political conspiracy.
The main protagonist, played by Timothy Olyphant, is a lone character, befitting really of the role. However, Olyphant's performance doesn't quite make the grade, he does not portray a character that the audience can take to, which is what we usually expect of the leading role.
Whether the problem is his acting technique or the script, Olyphant just doesn't seem right for the role, despite his 'hard man' appearance.
There was at least one intertextual reference to the video games in the film, (there may have been more but, as I'm not a gamer I couldn't have picked up on them) and although there was an attempt at humour with this reference, it was slightly out of place with the serious tone of the film and it finds itself wasted on audience members who are not gamers.
The hitman's 'love interest' (if you can call it that) seemed rather pointless. While it made the hitman seem more human and also tried to add some light entertainment to the film, it just didn't work. Intimate scenes between Agent 47 and Nika felt awkward and the sub-plot they shared didn't seem to move with much pace, leaving it feeling fairly mediocre.
Perhaps what struck me most about the film was the lack of fire and excitement in the action scenes, it lacked 'edge of your seat' action. This could have been compensated for if the film was supposed to be more humorous, but alas that didn't seem to be the intent either.
With such a striking film title, one would expect many more explosions, brutal fights and bloody murders...there just wasn't enough violence to carry such a title.
So, would I recommend this to a friend? definitely not, unless they are an avid fan of the games, and even then, I would imagine they would be disappointed. On a lighter note...at least the film is only and hour and a half long!
