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Hitman: Agent 47

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Rupert Friend in Hitman: Agent 47 (Twentieth Century Fox)
Rupert Friend in Hitman: Agent 47 (Twentieth Century Fox)

What it's about:

An elite assassin, who was genetically engineered from conception to be the perfect killing machine, is known only by the last two digits on the barcode tattooed on the back of his neck. He is the culmination of decades of research—and forty-six earlier Agent clones—endowing him with unprecedented strength, speed, stamina and intelligence. His latest target is a mega-corporation that plans to unlock the secret of Agent 47’s past to create an army of killers whose powers surpass even his own. Teaming up with a young woman who may hold the secret to overcoming their powerful and clandestine enemies, 47 confronts stunning revelations about his own origins and squares off in an epic battle with his deadliest foe.

What we thought:

Films based on video games have had a long curse on them. Either the filmmaker doesn’t get to the core of what made the game great, or the game doesn’t translate well to film. Of course there are exceptions (Prince of Persia wasn’t too bad and Resident Evil has kickass action choreography), but unfortunately the second attempt at making the Hitman series into a viable film franchise hit way of target, making it worse when you regard how terrible the first one was. You would’ve thought they have learnt their lesson.

In this installment, Agent 47 is tasked with tracking down his maker’s daughter, who inevitably will lead him to the maker himself. A massive corporation is also on the trail, wanting the secret formula to create more Agents for an army.

Instead of focusing on creating action scenes that would have lent itself fantastically to the franchise, the audience is forced to endure the most boring cinematography for an action film. There are so many instances where the sequences could’ve almost been great, but instead the filmmakers stuck with hackneyed stunts and a plot that can’t support the film by itself.

Many times a hero is only good as their villain, and the lack of hell-bent conviction from Zachary Quinto as a juiced up bodyguard and the less-than-a-minute-onscreen boss makes for boring climax. Without any real badass gumption or ruthless persona, Quinto’s character becomes nothing more than a punching bag and target practice, a character they forgot to add and had to hurriedly create last-minute. This is exasperated by the fact that Quinto himself doesn’t seem invested in the role either. Why Quinto signed up for this role is a mystery, especially when you know how good a bad guy he can be from his Hero days.

Although I can say leading lady Hannah Ware wasn’t too bad, not too well-known but can definitely kill it as an action star, or even perhaps in a superhero role. She also manages to make Rupert Friend (Homeless fame) more bearable as the emotionless Agent 47, but unfortunately couldn’t carry the film by herself. At least she isn’t there as a romantic object for the male lead and actually drives the story, but that’s only one of the few positives of this film.

A massively disappointing action film, Hitman: Agent 47 is just another addition to the Hall of Terrible Game Movies, and not worth any of action junkies’ money. Although it pays homage to the use of disguise in the games and some stealth play, rather replay your favourite Hitman game than watch this snooze fest.

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