Hitman: Agent 47

For many years, and in many different results, Hollywood have made many movie adaptions of video games. Some of you have probably seen the Resident Evil films, or perhaps you have seen Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie ? We also have 2 films taken from the Silent Hill games. The first film was actually pretty good, while the sequel should have been a lot better. There are also other video games made into film adaptations. Maybe you have seen Uwe Boll´s films House Of The Dead, Bloodrayne or perhaps my personal favourite Far Cry ? Since i love video games, and play both on Xbox 360 and PS3, i try and mix it up with all genre games. My wife even have Just Dance 3, but don´t tell anyone i tried dancing to that.....

I think that some games should be left alone, and not made into movie adaptions. Why ? Simply because it is not easy to make a movie, based on the same characters from the video game. You have to find the right style, and you have to transform the same feeling that the game offers, and these are some of the problems most films have. There is one video game i would like to see become a movie adaptation. How about a film based on the games Just Cause ? Just imagine how good that could be, but it will have to be directed by Michael Bay of course, no one else could make a better version of the game. The only video game based films made so far that have managed to deliver entertainment, is without a doubt Resident Evil. All the films have influneces from the video games, and my personal favourite is still Resident Evil: Extinction. I know that there have been talking about making a new version of Tomb Raider, but without Angelina Jolie this time. Is this a good idea ? I don´t think the film makers care, they just want to make these films hoping that the video game fans will enjoy them. Have you ever played any of the Hitman video games ? There is a chance you have, and if you did at some point, you might remember that you play a secret Hitman, hired to take out different targets. Hitman became a popular video game, and the sequels did pretty well in sales, so it was not a surprise that a movie adaptation was on the way. In 2007, french director Xavier Gens was chosen to direct a film, based on the video game. Considering that he directed the really good french horror movie Frontier(s), it could have been a good choice. Hitman proved that it is not easy to make a film, based on a video game. There were just too many details thrown in here, trying to mix together. Not the worst film based on a video game, but some major problems should have been fixed. So here we are in 2015, and we have a sequel, named Hitman: Agent 47. This time with a different director, Aleksander Bach, and a new leading role as Hitman, known as Rupert Friend. I did not have high expectations about this sequel, but decided to go and see it in the cinema. Do we finally have a good film based on the popular video games, or is it another proof that you should never do a film based on game characters ?

Geneticist Dr. Peter Litvenko ( Ciarán Hinds ) was the lead scientist of a secret bioengineering program to make the perfect " assassins ", with perfect speed, high intelligence and able to finish any job. They have no feelings, have no fear, and only knows that their mission needs to be finished. Litvenko see that this program, could cause problems if he continue to create genetically engineering killing machines. So he decides to run, and hides his daughter Katia Van Dees in safety. Many years have passed, and many agencies and organizations have tried to replicate the Agent Program, without any luck. A corporation known as Syndicate International, understand that the only way to find how the program really works, is to find Litvenko. Syndicate member Dr. Delriego ( Rolf Kanies ) is about to locate Litvenko, when Agent 47 ( Rupert Friend ) assassinate Delriego and his team. Agent 47 is contacted by his handler Diana Burnwood ( Angela Yeung ), that he needs to locate Letvenko´s daughter Katia ( Hannah Ware ) and assassinate her. She is located in Berlin, Germany, where she is living alone. Katia have no idea that she is wanted, so she is shocked when John Smith ( Zachary Quinto ) approach her, and tell her that she is in danger. Eventually Katia belive him, as she thinks that this agent who is following her wants to kill her. The truth is that John Smith is actually a mamber of Syndicate International, and need Katia to make Litvenko work for them. Agent 47 realise this mission may not be going the way he have planned it, and needs to change the rules.

While leaving the cinema after watching Hitman: Agent 47, two things got on my mind.

# Could i hire this Hitman to wipe out the entire Dansbandsveckan ?

# Could he make sure Nicki Minaj never release another album again ?

If these 2 questions are able to become reality, i will love Agent 47 forever. But let´s talk about the film Hitman: Agent 47 for a while. Since the first film was filled with over the top action sequences, of course this film have the same concept. And i suppose that director Aleksander Bach, wanted to try and make it look like a Hitman concept, that we would recognize from the games. This second film proves once again, its hard to make video games into films. I like the fact that this film takes place in Berlin, and they actually filmed on location, because i have been to Berlin and recognized many locations. I also like that there is a deeper story here, but the story is not used well enough to make it interesting. Once the action begins to kick in, we get served with pretty basic gun scenes, fighting sequences, and unfortunately some bad acting. Lead actor Rupert Friend is actually the best part of this film, as Agent 47. He is stiff, and does not use many acting skills, but in some ways he is not supposed to make Agent 47 into an Oscar winning performance, he is supposed to be serious and not care about anything. Now let´s get into some of the problems. The assassination of Katia Van Dees would probably not be cancelled by Agent 47, as he does here in this film. If you have played the games, you probably remember that he always get the job done. Here he feels guilt towards Katia, and decides not to kill her, and that does not feel like Agent 47. Ok, i understand that they might want to show another side of him, but i would rather see them portrait the hitman that we recognize. Another detail i thought were pretty silly, was the fact that Katia is actually Agent 90, and is already trained, not knowing it. This should have been explained at some point in the film, how she became a trained agent, but we don´t get any answers to that. Director Aleksander Bach, is mostly known for making music videos and commercials. Hitman: Agent 47 is his debut feature film as an director, and i can see that he have potential. But he does not stick to the roots of the games, and use important tools that should have been here. And some of the action scenes could have been made better, you can tell that the special effects take over, when we really want to see more real stunts made instead. This is not a worthy film to the Hitman games, and it is a shame, because i could see that there is more depth in this film than last time. Depending on how the box office numbers end, i am not sure if we will ever see Hitman back on the big screen. If he does come back, how about using more structure from the games, instead of just making an action film ? This might be something to think about.

Rating: DD