Hitman: Agent 47 2015 (Movie Review)

Dir: Aleksander Bach

Starring: Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto

Dur: 1 hr 37 mins

Genre: Action

Rating: 4/5

PG: Graphic violence and few expletives.

If action is what you’re looking for, Hitman Agent 47 is where you can take a halt. The story is fast-paced, action-packed and thrilling. More than once it had me altering my position as the suspense built up and later relax with a smile when the climax was reached and the film accelerated into the next suspense-climax cycle.

47 (Rupert Friend) is on a mission (like he is most of the time). But who is he and how did he end up with a name like 47?! First of all, 47 is a ‘product’ of a program that produces genetically modified humans for the express purpose of making them specialists in assassination. To bolster productivity and efficacy, they are made immune to emotions like fear, pain, love and even death, which could interfere with their mission and obedience. Since each person is a product, they are burned with a bar code on the back of their head and are given a number corresponding to their ‘model’. Strange, but what’s more mysterious is that we come across three other persons from the same program, two of whom use regular names and are not shown having a bar code. The third, can be presumed to have these but we will never know for certain because he is hardly given a few seconds on screen.

47’s mission is to eliminate a father-daughter duo. The former being the mastermind and sole possessor of knowledge about the Hitman program which has long since been decommissioned. The daughter, Katia (Hannah Ware) is the focal point as she is believed to know the whereabouts of her father, whom she never knew nor met. 47 on making contact with her decides not to kill her but to protect and help for reasons we are told only later on in the movie. The action is gory with blood splattering and killing happening in gruesome ways. Rupert does his action sequences well but I didn’t feel him to be the cold, calculating, clinical killer Timothy Olyphant portrayed in the previous edition. He is quick, athletic, clinical and pretty chilled but I didn’t vibe him as a strong hitman character.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Hannah acted brilliantly. What particularly appealed to me were her facial expressions. The story is neatly developed; the concept is simple but allows for sufficient display of hitman skills. The background music blends in very well and does its job of influencing moods and adding to the theatrical experience. I wouldn’t mind watching this film another time.