Despite not really having been much of a gamer in the past – though PORTAL 2, and the interactive Military SF novel that is MASS EFFECT are changing all that now – I have always reserved a special place in my heart for movies based on videogames. From STREET FIGHTER to DOA, and from WING COMMANDER to my beloved SUPER MARIO BROS., the scripting gymnastics through which the production team must jump to make their First Person Shooter or Action Adventure Game into a viable feature film are ever-entertaining, and the simplistic nature of their fundamental premises (Bad guys are coming! Let's kill 'em!) at least takes all that pesky thinking out of the movie-watching equation.
Of all the many video game-based adaptations I have seen, however (TOMB RAIDER! DOOM! PRINCE OF PERSIA! TEKKEN!), Hit-man is the only one that I would never have guessed was based on a video game at all, because it transcends the usual nonsense of such endeavors and crosses over into being, simply and without question, an actual good movie.
Admittedly, when the story kicks off it's all worrisomely familiar, and therefore might lead one to be somewhat trepidatious about what is to come. We get montage-y vision of a cadre of bald, barcoded, presumably genetically-modified youngsters being raised in an institution, dressed alike and taught elaborate fighting techniques—so far, so DARK ANGEL.(Indeed – and this is almost incredible – the footage is actually FROM DARK ANGEL, which the end credits acknowledge; who says people don't recycle enough nowadays?) But instead of staging a mass breakout during a nationwide EMP and leading to Jessica Alba in leather, it transpires that the bald kids raised in this particular evil college of combat all become elite assassins, stalking their terrible away across the world with shiny guns in hand, taking out high priority targets and living lives of dysfunctional loneliness.
One such assassin is Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant – and, yes, okay, I'll acknowledge that this is probably why I like the movie so much), a particularly adept killer who has, for some reason, been set up by his own people to take the fall on a particularly politically-motivated assassination. Why his agency would allow one of their top operatives, in whom they have presumably invested much time and money, to be sacrificed in this manner is never sufficiently explained, but the upshot of it is that we are therefore treated to action-packed assassin-on-the-run crazy fun times, with 47 making a new friend/hostage in the incredibly gorgeous person of the troublesome Nika (Olga Kurylenko) while trying to avoid his fellow assassins and the relentless Interpol agent (Dougray Scott) who has been hot on his trail for several years. (Long enough that he has developed a grudging respect for him, in the way that all fictional manhunters seem to do for their quarries.)
Meanwhile, 47 is out for vengeance on the man who caused him to be set up, and in the process of developing feelings for Nika – chivalrously unconsummated feelings, by the by, which, if nothing else, makes this movie unique in its handling of the necessary Love Interest stakes – he declares war on anyone who would harm her, as well. It's all very sweet, in a brutal and callous kind of way. There is really no other way to describe it.
Not having played the game, I am in no position to comment on this adaptation's authenticity, but as something of a connoisseur of a) action movies and b) the work of Timothy Olyphant, let me just say that I consider this to be the most successful attempt to bring the two together that we have yet seen (not that LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD didn't have its moments). Of course, this movie is far from perfect, even leaving aside any gamer gripes – I especially found it odd that this phalanx of distinctively groomed and tattooed assassins has gone unnoticed and unapprehended all this time, given how much they stand out in the crowd. Then again, they're basically The Observers from FRINGE with guns and weirdly conspicuous ink, and we all know those time traveling guys managed to elude detection for centuries. So maybe people are just dumb. But for all its flaws, of Olyphant I have only praise, and Kurylenko – wow. Elsewhere, Dougray Scott is dapper and determined, bringing the ease and aplomb to his obsessive inspector that is pretty much his hallmark.
All in all, you should definitely include Hit-man in your next video game movie marathon, or action movie marathon, or assassin movie marathon – or, indeed, Timothy Olyphant movie marathon. Unless I'm the only one who does those?
– This review first appeared in Geek Speak Magazine
Of all the many video game-based adaptations I have seen, however (TOMB RAIDER! DOOM! PRINCE OF PERSIA! TEKKEN!), Hit-man is the only one that I would never have guessed was based on a video game at all, because it transcends the usual nonsense of such endeavors and crosses over into being, simply and without question, an actual good movie.
Admittedly, when the story kicks off it's all worrisomely familiar, and therefore might lead one to be somewhat trepidatious about what is to come. We get montage-y vision of a cadre of bald, barcoded, presumably genetically-modified youngsters being raised in an institution, dressed alike and taught elaborate fighting techniques—so far, so DARK ANGEL.(Indeed – and this is almost incredible – the footage is actually FROM DARK ANGEL, which the end credits acknowledge; who says people don't recycle enough nowadays?) But instead of staging a mass breakout during a nationwide EMP and leading to Jessica Alba in leather, it transpires that the bald kids raised in this particular evil college of combat all become elite assassins, stalking their terrible away across the world with shiny guns in hand, taking out high priority targets and living lives of dysfunctional loneliness.
One such assassin is Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant – and, yes, okay, I'll acknowledge that this is probably why I like the movie so much), a particularly adept killer who has, for some reason, been set up by his own people to take the fall on a particularly politically-motivated assassination. Why his agency would allow one of their top operatives, in whom they have presumably invested much time and money, to be sacrificed in this manner is never sufficiently explained, but the upshot of it is that we are therefore treated to action-packed assassin-on-the-run crazy fun times, with 47 making a new friend/hostage in the incredibly gorgeous person of the troublesome Nika (Olga Kurylenko) while trying to avoid his fellow assassins and the relentless Interpol agent (Dougray Scott) who has been hot on his trail for several years. (Long enough that he has developed a grudging respect for him, in the way that all fictional manhunters seem to do for their quarries.)
Meanwhile, 47 is out for vengeance on the man who caused him to be set up, and in the process of developing feelings for Nika – chivalrously unconsummated feelings, by the by, which, if nothing else, makes this movie unique in its handling of the necessary Love Interest stakes – he declares war on anyone who would harm her, as well. It's all very sweet, in a brutal and callous kind of way. There is really no other way to describe it.
Not having played the game, I am in no position to comment on this adaptation's authenticity, but as something of a connoisseur of a) action movies and b) the work of Timothy Olyphant, let me just say that I consider this to be the most successful attempt to bring the two together that we have yet seen (not that LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD didn't have its moments). Of course, this movie is far from perfect, even leaving aside any gamer gripes – I especially found it odd that this phalanx of distinctively groomed and tattooed assassins has gone unnoticed and unapprehended all this time, given how much they stand out in the crowd. Then again, they're basically The Observers from FRINGE with guns and weirdly conspicuous ink, and we all know those time traveling guys managed to elude detection for centuries. So maybe people are just dumb. But for all its flaws, of Olyphant I have only praise, and Kurylenko – wow. Elsewhere, Dougray Scott is dapper and determined, bringing the ease and aplomb to his obsessive inspector that is pretty much his hallmark.
All in all, you should definitely include Hit-man in your next video game movie marathon, or action movie marathon, or assassin movie marathon – or, indeed, Timothy Olyphant movie marathon. Unless I'm the only one who does those?
– This review first appeared in Geek Speak Magazine