Hitman Out of the Shadows

I want to start of by saying that I am a HUGE fan of the game series. Having played all titles (including the addictive 'Hitman GO'), I dread to think how many hours I spent trying to achieve the rank of 'Silent Assassin'. Sneaking and skulking in the shadows, stalking and inevitably stealthily taking down my targets were par for the course. An ingredient the movies just couldn't capture.

I loved 2007's 'Hitman'. Timothy Olyphant nailed the look but sadly his voice couldn't sell me a Carlsberg even if I had a lethal syringe pressed to my neck. The voice is as iconic as the silver ballers, black suit, white shirt, red tie and bald head combo. The lack of 'the voice' left a gaping hole the size of a .45 ACP exit wound.

As far as action films go, it was (and still is) a thoroughly enjoyable action romp. If we forget the plot (which was as solid as a falsified testimony in a court of law), the movie has a number of impressive action sequences and set pieces that would give Jason Bourne a run for his money (after he overcomes the amnesia). Dougray Scott served well as the Interpol officer hot on the trail of our bald pal although I had hoped 47's journey would take him to Swansea just so I could hear him say "Pretty shitty city" one more time.

Then I heard about 'Hitman: Agent 47'. His name is in the fricking title! Much like the games, it had a colon and some wordy bits. Aside from that and a number of visual nods to the game series, this one missed the mark also. Rupert Friend's rendition ended up looking like a pissed off, bald Orlando Bloom. The look AND the voice were AWOL here.

Again, as an action film I think this is a brilliant movie. From the awesome sequence at the beginning with a remote controlled sniper rifle, laser trip wires that trigger tracking devices to be fired at the passing cars and a beautiful shot of the iconic black suit, white shirt and red tie behind two gloved hands tightening a garrote. Cue inner geek screaming and jumping for joy as a scene is literally ripped from the games and put into the film.

Both films have brilliant action scenes but 'Agent 47' takes the cup for the nods to the game series that diehard fans would love. From the aforementioned scene to a shot of another agent by a bath tub complete with a dead guy, rubber ducky and a toaster. Some fantastic homages for sure!

So you may be asking, "Okay so what's the problem?" Well, the actionis the problem. The whole point of the games is to eliminate your target(s) with no collateral damage. A 'Silent Assassin' doesn't get involved in shout out after shoot out. No amount of attire changes are going to help there, I'm afraid. But this then raises a bigger issue. If the movies truly captured what makes the games great, the movies would suffer tremendously. Who wants to watch a guy creep around on screen for what seems to be an eternity before eventually shooting the other guy in the head? Who wants to watch a guy shimmy (shimmy yo), climb, crawl, hide, rinse, repeat before eventually making it to someone's bedroom and pressing a pillow over their face until their body goes limp and the very life leaves their body as silently as our anti-hero leaves the room unnoticed?

The movies are more of a namesake with a few garnishes that fans of the games will spot but, other than that, they're just action movies with no defined ties to the games they claim to be based on.

Sometimes, Hollywood, things just shouldn't be made. The only way the games could be honoured truly would be via animated features which would act more like extensions to the cut-scenes from the franchise but then where's the money in that?