Review: Hitman: Agent 47

Despite never quite getting a videogame adaptation right, studios are still trying to churn out film after film in order to hit that elusive sweet spot where they please both new audiences and fans of the original videogame. It’s a daunting task since neither audience really knows what they want in the end. It leads some videogame films (like the Resident Evil Series, for example) to just forego all of that and just try and make something fun. 

That’s where Hitman: Agent 47 comes in. A sequel that soft reboots the series (they tried to launch a set of Hitman films in 2007, unsuccessfully) into a slick, goofy, and surprisingly faithful action film that I kind of want to see more of. 

Hitman: Agent 47
Director: Aleksander Bach
Rated: R
Release Date: August 21, 2015

Based on IO-Interactive’s Hitman series, Agent 47 follows Katia (Hannah Ware) a woman with mysterious heightened skills searching for her father, a man who once ran a covert government (which government? Who cares!) experiment that lead to the creation of super soldiers with highly advanced tactical skills known as “Agents.” When Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) claims he’s trying to help save Katia and her father from Syndicate agent John Smith (Zachary Quinto), she doesn’t know who to believe and must decide whether or not to rely on her mysterious abilities to survive.

As you can probably gauge from the synopsis, 47 is as generic as they come. It’s a trite plot that doesn’t waste time with intricacies or honest characterization. But in the same vein, the flow of the film benefits from the lack of plot or heavy knowledge of the characters. For example, Rupert Friend is “fine” as Agent 47. The film specifically doesn’t ask much more of him than to be an emotionless blank slate, but it’s strangely never boring. It adds an interesting air of sterility to the film that pushes all of the violence of the film into hilarious territory (since the grit stands out so much). When you watch a guy listlessly kill a guy with a bible while a techno-metal soundtrack blares in the background, you can’t help but laugh. 

It’s almost as if the film is trying to replicate the videogame series in that sense. By having a blank slate as the main character, 47 is trying its best to capture the feeling of experiencing the beats of the story through a direct avatar. It doesn’t always work since cinema fundamentally can’t connect with an audience at such a base level, but that’s why 47 makes the inspired decision to choose a different main character. Rather than follow the blank slate, we’re supposed to care about Katia. While that doesn’t quite work either since she eventually collapses into the violent world of the film, it allows 47 to be “inhuman” for a bit and lets the audience enjoy how ridiculous the film’s world is. It’s a near perfect action formula which almost feels nostalgic in the way it wants us to just enjoy this guy shooting other guys. 

Evidence of this is 47‘s fantastically storyboarded opening. With airs of Terminator, two agents follow Katia. The “inhuman” 47 does this awesome slow walk (but thanks to his emotionless state, the film believes in its audience enough to infer that he’s walking with pompous confidence), while Quinto’s John Smith has this awesome Kyle Reese vibe. Then they fight on the subway tracks and the film becomes a cartoon. It’s pretty awesome. To explain why it turns into Terminator would give away the fun of the opening, but it really isn’t a big twist if you’ve seen these films before. Although the plot is generic, Agent 47 does whatever it can to make everything else super fun: action sequences are faithful to the videogames as 47 uses the environment around him to take down a room, the bad dialogue makes the banter between the action hilarious, and the soundtrack seems overbearing at first but eventually subsides. 

I’m left wondering whether or not I was “supposed” to enjoy Hitman: Agent 47 in the way I did. The film begs the question of whether or not we’re “supposed” to laugh with it or at it. After writing my thoughts down here, I think it’s a little bit of both columns. Hitman: Agent 47 is full of intentional goofy choices in order to keep the film fresh. Unlike films that try and be a bad movie in order to reach a cult status, 47 doesn’t care whether or not you’re going to watch it later. It’s invested in keeping you entertained now and doesn’t care whether or not you’re invested back. 

While Hitman: Agent 47 is too generic of an action film for pure action fans, it’s got enough flair to appease casual fans of its namesake. It’s got bad dialogue, bland characters, but it’s so brisk only some of that matters. Hitman: Agent 47 hits its target well enough I’d be interested in seeing what another of these can bring.