Agent 47 has been educated to become a professional assassin for hire, whose most powerful weapons are his nerve and a resolute pride in his work. 47 is both the last two digits of the barcode tattooed on the nape of his neck, and his only name. The hunter becomes the hunted when 47 gets caught up in a political takeover. Both Interpol and the Russian military chase the HITMAN across Eastern Europe as he tries to find out who set him up and why they're trying to take him out of the game. But the greatest threat to 47's survival may be the stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a beautiful, damaged girl...

After seeing the trailer for Hitman I had no intention of seeing the movie as none of trailers came close to ever making this movie seem interesting. But after receiving a free ticket to see the movie I dared the film with the expectations of being let down and not very entertained. And surprisingly the movie ended up actually being a little bit better than I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong this movie is no cinema masterpiece, heck at times it wasn’t even a very good popcorn film. What the film is, is just another video game adaptation that truly did not have enough story to warrant a big screen adaptation. I am sure the video game is more interesting as you have the ability to be the characters and it’s mostly action based with a little bit of story, that does not work for movies though. You need more back story, more plot and more character development to make the movie be more than just a Bourne or James Bond wannabe. The film is an ok action film but there is just not enough going on besides that to make it anything more than just ok or ho hum.

I was expecting some kind of back story for the character, as the trailer makes it look like the Hitman was a church trained monk kind of anti-hero who eliminates evil for this secret branch of the church. That would have made a better story, it would have given us something to watch rather than the mindless action we got instead. The film was like watching a friend play the video game, you are taking no part in it and its just not as interesting as if you were playing the game yourself. We really never learn that much about the character it was like we had ust read the synopsis of the character off the back of the game box.

It seems I always find myself trying to defend video game adaptations as film. I am at a loss though for any true great transfer of these mediums. There is plenty of good ones and ok ones but none of these films end up being great or even that memorable. It’s because the mediums just don’t translate well. When playing video games you are involved in everything that is happening, you are providing the action and there really doesn’t need to be that much story going on. The same can’t be said for film, the story is the most important part and the action secondary and there rarely is enough story to flesh out a two hour movie. So what these films become is a sub-genre of the popcorn flick and sadly not as good as many of the popcorn flicks out there.

I have to question Timothy Olyphant as the lead role in this film, he just wasn’t right for the part and is probably why the trailers looked so weak. He always seems to be playing the creepy bad guy which fits well with his persona. He just doesn’t seem right for the lead role of an anti-hero in an action film. Some actors can be action heroes others are just better off not even trying. The movie also seems to love to try and borrow from movies that have done it better and that really didn’t help its case. While not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, still not that great either.

Grade: C-