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Review: Hitman: Agent 47

Rupert Friend stars in 20th Century Fox's HITMAN: AGENT 47

It’s hard to make a character like Agent 47 interesting when it comes to movies. In video games, it’s a lot easier since you’re controlling the character, but in film, you’ll start to notice the lack of personality or anything else that may make things interesting. That’s an issue that Hitman: Agent 47 has to deal with, but unfortunately, there ended up being other problems with the film that helped cause it to fall apart very early on.

Rupert Friend stars as Agent 47, the genetically engineered assassin who’s known to be great at accomplishing the missions that are handed to him. This time around, his latest assignment sees him taking on a corporation looking to build its own army of elite killers by unlocking the secrets behind the existence of Agent 47 and the other clones that came before and after him.

Who thought this was a good idea? That’s one thing that continuously ran through my head while I tried my best to sit through this thing. As a video game, Hitman hasn’t been relevant for quite a while now, and the 2007 movie based on the character didn’t exactly break records at the box office. It’s obvious that this won’t make any money because of those factors, but I can’t say it deserves to make any. Hitman: Agent 47 is a completely forgettable movie complete with completely forgettable actors portraying completely forgettable characters.

The actors in this movie are as wooden as wooden can be. None of these guys have any life nor are any of them worth caring about. They’re all dry, dull and have the ability to put you to sleep if you’re not careful. The only person that shows any type of personality is Agent 90 aka Katia played by someone named Hannah Ware, but that’s only for a little while since she becomes more and more lifeless as the film moves along. I don’t know if that was done on purpose or if she just got bored, but either way, it didn’t help the movie’s cause.

One of the problems with her character is that in the early going, Agent 90 is shown to have these “spidey senses” that give her psychic abilities that are supposed to help her sense when there’s danger on the way. That’s certainly an odd addition to any Hitman movie, but what makes it even worse is that her powers have to come and go in order for the film to work. They prove to be extremely strong at the start, but it seems like she conveniently forgets that she has them whenever the film needs to create some kind of suspense.

It also doesn’t make sense that she is supposed to be a clone just like him. I say this because Agent 47 looks like all of the other clones. If that’s true, how did she become a she? Shouldn’t she be another version of him? I know she’s supposed to have psychic abilities but would the clones change physically? It would have been better if they tried to explain this, because I always thought they were supposed to be just like him.

Another issue that I had with the inconsistencies in Hitman: Agent 47 comes in the form of the main villain in terms of screen time played by Zachary Quinto. Not only is he just as bland as the two protagonists, he has certain abilities that his fellow antagonists should have had as well. I won’t go into details, but if the rest of the guys on his side were given the gifts that he was given by his bosses, this movie wouldn’t have lasted very long because Agents 47 and 90 wouldn’t have stood a chance. The truth is there was no reason why all of the villains couldn’t have had the same qualities given to them except for the fact that the good guys have to win.

Whether it’s Agent 90 being completely different physically from her fellow clones or John Smith (Quinto) being given advantages that the other villains did not get for some reason, they never explain any of it, but it doesn’t matter because the movie sucks. It also doesn’t matter because I doubt too many people will actually ever watch it. In terms of the character and a video game, there isn’t much of an audience for Hitman anymore, so there really was no reason to make a movie based on the property.

In terms of positive aspects of Hitman: Agent 47, the very first action scene that we lay eyes on is actually quite wonderful. This gave me hope that the movie as a whole would be able to provide some value for us, but that’s not what followed such a stellar sequence filled with blood, gunshots and acrobatic kills. Instead, everything falls extremely short of that. It’s almost as if their best ideas were used up in that opening action sequence.

If for some reason you want to watch a Hitman movie, it’s best to watch that 2007 version starring Timothy Olymphant and Olga Kurylenko that I spoke about earlier. That isn’t even close to being a great movie, but outside of the opening action scene, it’s much better than anything you’re going to find in this unwanted reboot. There’s no reason to recommend this, so just save your money and your time.

Rating: R

Director: Aleksander Bach

Cast:
Rupert Friend
Hannah Ware
Zachary Quinto
Ciarán Hinds
Thomas Kretschmann

Film Length: 96 minutes

Release Date: August 21, 2015

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

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