by Frank Calvillo
I believe in the notion that every film was made for someone. No matter what genre or plot a film may belong to or contain, there is at least one audience member made for every film that exists.
However if that notion is true for Hitman: Agent 47, I sincerely doubt that audience member and I could ever be friends.
Based on the video game franchise and following a previous attempt at a Hitman film, Hitman: Agent 47 deals with a highly trained assassin (Rupert Friend) who is sent to protect a young woman named Katia (Hannah Ware) from a powerful corporation headed by an evil scientist (Thomas Kretschmann) and his main henchman John Smith (Zachary Quinto) who are both hellbent on killing her.
We now live in a filmmaking era where many young directors have grown up loving the works of James Cameron and John McTiernan so much, they’ve made it their business to emulate them while also trying to put their own unique spin on used up techniques. Many of this new generation feel this gives them their own stamp when what it really does is turn them into music video-like directors. This is very much the case here where director Aleksander Bach has crafted a film which is part music video and part video game, only with a better camera.
Considering this is Bach’s first feature (as well as his first time behind the camera professionally), Hitman: Agent 47 is serviceably made. Its got those slo-mo moments where the sound stops as the action turns things up, its got the violent deaths which befall many nameless henchmen and its got plenty of destruction of city property. It has all of that, yet none of it is revolutionary or even that interesting to watch.
To the filmmakers’ credit, there aren’t too many moments of intended seriousness that evolve into unexpected laughter. But even that proves to be one of Hitman: Agent 47’s flaws. This film is so boring, its not even laughable enough to make fun of. In the end, the film lacks more life and emotion of ANY kind than its titular character does.
While there isn’t much to say about this “science falling into the wrong hands” / Terminator ripoff plot, the performances are at least worth some comment.
As Agent 47, Friend is perfectly cast and adopts the right kind of steely demeanor to play the manufactured assassin. The actor has done some fine work in the past, from a Nazi to a French courtesan’s son, and though the film is a dog, I have to give some applause to Friend for continuing to take on roles which bear no resemblance to the one he took on before.
Likewise, Ware is great as a Sarah Connor-type lost soul wandering around Europe searching for the father she never knew while trying to stay hidden from the system hunting her down. The biting energy that the actress brings to her role coupled with the kind of eyes that give off loads of emotion deserves praise and I personally can’t wait to see the actress in a role truly worthy of her undeniable talents.
Of the three leads, Quinto is the one who suffers most. I can appreciate that things may be getting a bit dull in Star Trek world, but the actor was ill-advised to take on one of the more boring villain roles of the year. It’s not that Quinto can’t play dark. Anyone who has seen him in American Horror Story knows differently. It’s just that he is so hopelessly miscast here, it’s hard to believe anyone connected with the film would have thought him a suitable candidate for the role in any other way besides his bringing in a built in fanbase.
Ordinarily, I respond pretty well to the sort of popcorn action fare which Hitman: Agent 47 was trying so hard to be. For me, those kinds of films are glorious pieces of adrenaline-filled escapism where you can check out and enjoy a thrill ride.
This film’s thrill ride ended with a shoot ’em up finale within a sleek and towering office headquarters where plenty of action and bloodshed took place. In most other films of this kind, these ingredients would have been enough to captivate my attention perfectly up until the credits rolled. It’s therefore very telling that in Hitman: Agent 47, all I could think about was how long it was going to take the building’s cleaning crew to get everything back in order once the shooting was over.
