Movie Review: Hitman

My Rating: 9/10

I was sceptical about this film. Movie tie-ins and licenses have a rare chance of success. Should I ruin my memories of an excellent game by watching a substandard film that aspires to be faithful to the game and even dared to be entertaining in the process?

After the disaster that was Rambo 4, I was getting hard to impress. It was with this cynical mood that I watched Hitman, hardly a week had passed since I allowed my eyes to be exposed to a distasteful movie like Rambo 4.

The Hitman DVD slid into the player...

Number 47 was raised an orphan by a secret organisation, he was taught unarmed combat, was subjected to strict disciplinary action.

What was that? 47 wasn't 'raised' by nobody. Agent 47 was genetically manufactured. Anybody who played the game knows that. Even the last installment, Hitman: Blood Money, gave us a flashback level into the lab where 46 was made. Scratch one for Hitman the movie.

47 sneaks into Interpol inspector Mike Whittier's home for a confrontation and the movie begins in earnest, through a series of flashback sequences. When he ends up in a hotel and Russia's FSB sets up an ambush, my memory is jogged back to the last level of Hitman: Blood Money- 47 is trapped in a hotel room in France as gendarmes swarm the building.

Number 47 makes use of pistols he stored in an icebox precluding the attack, he makes use of a bungee rope he lashed onto the balcony much earlier. I get my own set of flashbacks, to the time when I was playing the game.

47 cases a restaurant with Nika, on the pretense that he wants to take her out to dinner and I think to myself, 'Hey, that's what I would've done'. 47 makes his move to intercept arms dealer Price in the gents and I get more flashbacks. Avid gamers of Hitman know too well what takes place in the gents: Sooner or later, they all have to go.

Right about this time I was really starting to dig the movie. The scene in Udre Bellikov's mansion totally had me. As faithful as a movie can get to a game, this one has my vote. My wife even commented that Oliver Olyphant walked like Agent 47 (she single-handedly completed Hitman 2.

If you loved the wallpapers taken from the game, you'll love how the director tried to emulate them. When 47 had Nika meet with his CIA contact in a cafe, the beautiful portrait of 47 perched high up on a roof looking down on the proceedings through a WA-2000 sniper rifle is a poignant scene and truly nostalgic.

There are plenty of firefights if that's what you're looking for. Honestly, I wasn't really following the story. I was distracted by how parallel the movie and the game was and if they were somehow interconnected like the Matrix series. You'll be impressed by the knife-fight in the train station, by the method 47 used to get at an African terrorist leader, by the host of other agents after his behind, by his black suit and red tie... by the barcode on the back of his neck.

You won't be disappointed by this movie. It's blessed with of visual effects that doesn't stand out glaringly- they serve to make the film look good. Directing is incredibly fluid and professional. This from a director, Xavier Gens, who doesn't have much to his credit. Timothy Olyphant has played Agent 47 to the T. Film editing is beautiful giving 47 and the film in general a stylish and sophisticated feel. Fall in love with the haunting melancholic melody of the 'Ave Maria' soundtrack. Enjoy the hit!