Movie Review - Hitman: Agent 47

Ah, game movies. Some say we're better off without them, while some say they boost the original game series. Hitman enjoyed moderate success in theatres some years back with its first movie. This year's Hitman: Agent 47 is a reboot of the original. So how did it work out? We watched the movie separately and here are our reviews.

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~ Karamel ~

As a gamer, and a gamer who has played number of titles of Hitman, I've always known Agent 47 as the mysterious guy who is good at assassinating and being all stealthy. As soon as I sat down to watch the movie, the first thing that's running through my head was, "I am going to pretend I have never played Hitman in my entire life," and it kinda worked out great. I enjoyed the movie, but only as a guy who has no idea what the Hitman game is. Just from the trailer itself, it has a lot of explosions and many small scenes that did not add up to show that Agent 47 is Agent 47. Hitman 47 is a movie that I have told myself to not have high expectations or hope for since the release of the trailer.

What is my thought of it? Quite mixed. I'll be tallying scores out of 10 and get an average score at the end. (And hope I don't put out too many spoilers for the movie)

VFX: 8/10 What can I say, it's Hollywood. The atmosphere, the effects and the CGI are all on the spot. Not too little to get bored of a scene, and not too many to get distracted by the graphics and miss the story. Oh, and one of the major places this movie captured was in Singapore, a hometown I really wish I want to return again. They captured the essence and beauty of Singapore with its mix of concrete and natural jungles, which really felt like home when I watched the movie.

Actors: 6/10 Good choice of actors, I appreciate the effort they try to put the actor's background story and did a decent job in trying not to have too many flashbacks of their main characters. All of them did their roles as they intended to be, but not something they can be better at.

Zachary Quinto, who is the evil guy known as John Smith in the movie, seems to be like an unstoppable force. I suppose it should be part of the movie, but I am unsure. I felt that he should have probably be a "successful candidate" or "experiment" in becoming close to an assassin, just like Agent 47, and proceed to assassinate Agent 47 and Katia.

Story: 4/10 or 8/10 The reason why I give two scores is because I am comparing it at both perspectives of being a Hitman gamer and a non-Hitman gamer, respectively.

As a gamer, I would say the movie sucks. Agent 47 isn't Agent 47, he's just a killing machine just like Terminator. The only stealth moment was him grabbing a pilot's jacket and cap, and his girlfriend hiding from the cameras. The rest of the movie were all about shooting everywhere, driving as fast as he can to be spotted and explosions that can be heard from a mile away. It was really a let down if gamers watched the movie.

However, as a guy who pretends to not know what Hitman games are, it was an enjoyable movie. A mix of all explosions, stealth, car stunts and great story. The flow was fantastic and the capture of each exciting and stressful moments were there. The only negative part of the movie was the anti-climax end, where it left the audience hanging of the "last battle" between the Agents.

Overall: 6/10 as a gamer, 7.3/10 as a casual watcher

What are my thoughts when I left the movie? I think they could have done a better ending, and probably followed more towards what the games are suppose to be. However, what am I to judge, I still enjoyed the movie when I left the theater :)

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~ Kokoro ~

There are three main reasons I watched this movie: Zachary Quinto (ZQ), the Hitman series, and Singapore. (Sorry, Rupert Friend! I'm a ZQ fangirl.)

I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was odd.

Pros: Lots of action and exciting fights. Singapore looks good.

It started off well enough. If they were aiming to capture a new audience that's not familiar with the series, they did a good job of explaining the premise of the show and the Hitman program. Then there were lots of attempts at foreshadowing, cryptic dialogue and actions linking events from the earlier part of the show to the ending.

Singapore looked pretty good. Really good. Singapore Tourism Board can pat themselves on the back for this collaboration.

The action was exciting, with car stunts and violent fights which are one of the signatures of the series. It was a wild rush from the start to get the protagonist up to speed on her abilities and her past, with little time to process the information. However, it's precisely because of the overwhelming proportion of action compared to the rest of show that made me feel that overall the movie was too short.

Cons: Sometimes none of it makes sense.

Agent 47 is an assassin, so why is he openly having a gun fight in a crowded train station? I don't know how to answer this question, so I'll just leave it at that.

And then we have ZQ as the antagonist. I first knew ZQ when he was Sylar in Heroes and in this movie, ZQ was definitely channelling Sylar, both in terms of physical form and personality. It was almost as if he showed the producers an episode and they went "Do that, we want exactly that!" That worked for the show but it was a pity the story made his character extremely inconsistent. Sometimes he was a pushover, other times he was near invincible.

Again, the same problem occurred with Agent 47. He's super strong, super sharp, and yet he's conveniently totally oblivious around Katia when he's asleep, just to serve the story. It's a total contradiction since earlier in the show they showed him easily waking up from hearing his laptop quietly pinging search results.

Just as all of the secrets were revealed, it just sort of ended with a weak anti-climax. The epic final fight didn't quite go on far enough. Without spoiling the ending, all the answers the protagonist was seeking were conveniently rendered irrelevant with a single action. It was TOO EASY.

Overall: 3/5 stars

It felt like a series of game cut-scene movies put together... For a different game. I was let down by the predictable plot that doesn't fully explore the true nature of the series, plus all around there was a lack of emotion. Yes, we're more or less expecting every game movie plot to be predictable but in this case it was very difficult to care. Majority of the points goes to the action.

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So what are your thoughts of this movie? Was it fun? What you expected? Share with us your views and thoughts! :)

#watchread