So I watched Hitman: Agent 47

I missed out on the first Hitman movie starring Timothy Olyphant and never played the Hitman video games so I was walking into this movie without any expectations in terms of story.The trailer had, had some cool parts and I like seeing people kick ass so I gave it go.

Okay, basic plot: Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) is super assassin created by a bio-engineering program led by Dr Peter Litvenko. 47 has increased physical abilities and diminished feelings of guilt, love and fear. Litvenko sees the danger creating superhumans poses and escapes the program. Years later, a evil corporation known as Syndicate International (the bad guys could really not have picked a more conspicuous name) wish to restart Litvenko’s old program. Unable to find Litvenko though, they turn their attention to his daughter – Katia. 47 must now find Katia before the Syndicate and ensure that they don’t obtain the power to recreate Agents such as himself.

I wasn’t expecting much from this movie in terms of story. I actually just went into it hoping to see some cool action and some amazing fight scenes but, unfortunately, this movie kept pushing story down my throat. This story isn’t even original, it’s been told so many times. The Bourne movies, Universal Soldier, Solo – the premise of a superhuman guy who’s been trained to have zero feelings then gets feelings and starts killing people for the right reasons has been done so many times that you really don’t need to spend the majority of the movie explaining it to me.Just get to the part where he starts punching people in the throat, because that’s why I bought a ticket. This movie is trying to be so heartfelt and deep and emotionally complex that it forgets that it’s an action movie.

Look, I don’t mind emotionally wrought, poignant themes in my action movie (I actually prefer them), what I don’t like is when a movie loses focus and discards its true spirit. Hitman: Agent 47 takes itself far too seriously and instead of being a fun action movie turns into an overly serious, boring, half-assed ripoff of The Bourne Identity. There’s also absolutely no tension in this movie. Every challenge is hurdled with greatest of ease. If someone is impossible to find, the characters find him in the next ten seconds. If a building is impossible to breach, the characters infiltrate it in their sleep. This would have been fine if we at least see Agent 47 struggling to make the impossible seem like child’s play but the movie is lazily written that things fall into his lap rather than he having to reach for them. This movie is so cliche and so uninspired in its writing that you can literally tell what the characters are going to say and do next. I wish it had chosen to focus more on its action because the action is quite entertaining at times.

The opening ten minutes of this movie are really entertaining. 47 has to take down a convey of cars and then about twenty armed guards. The skill and precision he does it with and the way fight scenes are shot are really amazing. It gets you excited for the rest of the movie but, as said earlier, the actions comes in dribs and drabs and you’re forced to sit through boring dialogue when all you want to see is 47 killing people. I have to say, Rupert Friend was absolutely amazing as Agent 47. He had the swagger and the robotic precision that you’d expert from such a highly-trained killer. Watching him was really fun, unfortunately, there are tons of scenes without him and this is when the movie dips and things get boring.

Zachary Quinto plays John Smith no, not the Pocahantas guy, Smith is an agent for Syndicate International and I think Quinto was miscast. He just isn’t passable as an action star. It felt like he didn’t have the fighting style down and because of this there had to be a million cuts in the shots of the fight scenes to compensate. Quinto is actually a good actor so in the parts where he isn’t fighting, he’s alright to watch but whenever things get physical, he just doesn’t stack up to Friend’s intensity as 47.

Overall, Hitman: Agent 47 is lacking in its most crucial department – the action and the acting and writing aren’t good enough to make up for the lack of action we have to endure. It’s not really worth a watch and the only real reason to watch this movie would be to see Friend’s slick and cool portrayal. Save your money and watch something else 5/10