Hitman'

Plot Outline:
A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian FSB (The successor of the KGB).When one of his assassinations is botched, 47 sets out to find out who set him up. Along the way he encounters numerous other hitmen assigned to take him out.

Overall Impressions:
Being a fan of films about assasins, it seems a little strange that I've never played the games that this film is based on, alas it is the truth & so I have no comparisons to make and am simple perceiving this as the film that it is. A film that appeared by most of the news surrounding it (and to an extent the trailer) to be a horrid mess.

As a pleasant surprise it's not. The concept is pretty simple and even so there are loopholes almost as large as me, but even factoring these in, there is no denying that it holds up as an above average entertainer. The character is ultra-cool and Timothy Olyphant does a good job of keeping it that way. A lot of people I know have been telling me he doesn't look the part, but this for me was a non-issue. Whether it be that I didn't know the character well enough to judge is another story.

Another surprise was that in a film centred upon the main lead role of Agent 47, a couple of others also leave an impact too. Firstly, (Dougray Scott) the interpol agent who has been tracking Agent 47 for years now. He is like the one agent who tracked the Incredible Hulk in the TV Series, totoally a believer and he knows how the man thinks, only ever one step behind. I think there was much scope for developing this aspect further. Secondly the character of Olga Kurylenko, in honesty this was one of my main concerns surrounding this flick originally: the potential 'love interest'. By my books, assasins and love interests don't mix. I'm glad to report this factor has been handled neatly. There is chemistry there but it's only pursued subtly, it happens to also add a dry humour about the flick.

The action is as expected pretty fast-paced, there were even occasions where they blatantly prioritised the 'looking cool' over logically choosing an optimal fighting strategy, but I totally approve. It kept things interesting & looking cool. I guess this is where the 'game' factor also comes in. Though I'm not certain, I imagine that in the games too you would have this option of choosing an optimal, discreet way of handling certain situations or alternatively going in guns blazing, just for fun.

One standout sore-point would definitely have to be dialogue. Not all through -- just at certain points the dialogue just went into retard-mode. The sort of dialogue that made you wonder if the film was based on that text-based game Zork rather than a modern day game about Assasins.