Hitman: The Movie

I always watch movies based on games with extreme trepidation. It is always too easy to mess up the core story with a shoddy attempt at dramatizing it. I understand that not all games make for good movies, and Hitman is one of the many that certainly won't. Sneaking around won't cut it for the average gunfire addicts, so I expected some artistic license with the show.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they did stick mostly to the subject matter. Number 47 is still the (mostly) heartless asexual contract killer. When I saw 47 with a woman on the promo posters, along with guns blazing in the trailer, I was beginning to worry that he had gone over to the dork side. Granted, he was way too tender for my taste and talked too much in the movie, but I suppose it was an essential part of the dramatization. After all, he did redeem himself by promptly sedating Nika as she tried to seduce him.

Of course, as a fan of the game series, I was disappointed that our dear 47 was attempting to get a Mass Murderer rating by pretty much slaughtering everyone he encountered. I am still puzzling over the assassins showdown, too. Swords instead of guns? That doesn't sound like my Toby at all! The one I know would simply shoot them all...if he even got into the situation in the first place. I'm sure there was plenty of room to insert some really sneaky killing, presumably making the process humorous or thrilling at the same time.

I think the movie deserves a 3/5. Primarily because of what they did to my Toby. I do not regret watching this on rental because I would have felt it was a waste of my movie money.