English
Gamereactor
movie reviews
Hitman: Agent 47

Hitman: Agent 47

47 is back on the big screen and he's taking on a deadly and personal assignment.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field

We've almost completely scrubbed the memory of the 2007 Hitman movie - you know, the one that starred Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott - from our mind, and so we went into this new film starring Rupert Friend with an open mind. Although this fresh interpretation of the video game series doesn't quite hit the mark, it's certainly a much better movie than its predecessor, and for the most part we enjoyed this globe-trotting, head-popping action romp.

It doesn't take long before this new adaptation goes against the grain and ignores the stealthy roots of the games, with 47 blasting his way through a gang of nameless henchman with little in the way of subtlety. There are nods to the gameplay pillars that define the series, but this is an action film first and foremost and not the tense thriller that would have perhaps been more befitting a faithful adaptation. There are, however, some exciting sequences, with decent stunts and explosive set-pieces to keep you engaged and smooth over a few rough edges relating to the script.

The story has 47 helping a mysterious woman called Katia (played by Hannah Ware) discover more about her past, which turns out to be linked to 47's own childhood, with revelatory moments shedding new light on the formative years of our deadly protagonist. It's a story that inevitably leads the bald-headed assassin (here with a shaven head) into conflict with John Smith (played by Zachary Quinto) and his colleagues, with the band of mercenaries hunting the pair all over the world. Smith has his own abilities that test 47 to the limit, and events depicted herein involving Quinto's character leave room for a followup. We also remain a little baffled about how they decided to wrap things up right at the very end, but perhaps that's just us.

Whether we'll get a direct sequel or not remains to be seen, but we're not sure that it'll happen. This is a perfectly watchable film, and in many ways it honours the source material, even if it doesn't stay entirely true to the stealth driven gameplay that characterises the series. At least it's an improvement over the first movie, although perhaps that's us damning it with faint praise. Fans of the follically-challenged assassin will enjoy it for the most part, but the question remains as to whether Hollywood will ever be able to adapt this kind of thing to the big screen in a meaningful way, in the process doing justice to gameplay that we know and love.

Hitman: Agent 47
This is an ad:
Hitman: Agent 47Hitman: Agent 47Hitman: Agent 47
06 Gamereactor UK
6 / 10
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

Related texts

0
Hitman: Agent 47

Hitman: Agent 47

MOVIE REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes

47 is back on the big screen and he's taking on a deadly and personal assignment.



Loading next content