Have movies based on video games become a cliché? Now, I know that a lot of people hate this genre, but feel that if done correctly, the movies can be good. Unfortunately, the films are rarely done correctly. As if the prejudice towards these films weren’t bad enough, they have began to fall into the same pattern which plagues television series which are made into movies. The filmmakers take characters which are familiar to the viewers and place them inside of an unnecessarily convoluted plot. It’s as if the filmmakers are attempting to justify the movie and prove their intelligence by throwing way too much story at the viewer. This is certainly the case with Hitman.

Timothy Olyphant stars in Hitman as Agent 47, a professional assassin who works for a mysterious entity. We learn that 47 was trained from childhood to be a killer and is an expert in many forms of murder. 47 is a suspect in over 100 killing and he’s being pursued by Interpol operative Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott). 47 receives orders to proceed to St. Petersburg to assassinate the new Russian president, Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen). Despite the fact that the hit seems to go as planned, 47 is shocked to see Belicoff alive and well on TV. The killer is then informed that his cover has been blown by a woman who saw him commit the crime. When he goes to confront this woman -- Nika (Olga Kurylenko) -- 47 realizes that it is a trap and takes Nika with him. The two are now on the run, not only from Whittier, but from those who framed 47 and arranged for his death. In order to clear his name (?!), 47 must betray his own organization, trust his enemies, and utilize all of his skills.

I have to admit that I’ve never played any of the Hitman games, but I have read about them and I’m somewhat familiar with the concept. Admittedly, the idea of having a professional assassin as the main character (and some would say, hero) may not seem like the most morally responsible idea, the Agent 47 character is an intriguing one. The film takes somewhat of a James Bond approach to the idea, as 47 travels the world, going from one exotic locale to another, doing his duty. He’s always one step ahead of the law and his escaped is always planned. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that 47 is not unlike the hard-edged Bond seen in Casino Royale, the only difference being that 47 is all business, and he even brushes off the ladies when he’s on a job. The look of Agent 47 is interesting as well. His head is shaved clean, and he has a barcode on the back of his head. He always wears a black suit with a red tie so that he remains inconspicuous. (Although, to be honest the whole bald head with barcode thing really stands out in live-action.)

So, how did this interesting character and concept turn into such a boring and confusing movie? Blame must certainly go to director Xavier Gens (whose film Frontier(s) has gotten good word of mouth) and writer Skip Woods (writer of the new live-action G.l. Joe film). At the outset, the story seems fairly straightforward -- Agent 47 is a professional assassin who is on his latest assignment. The twist of his quarry suddenly being alive is a good one. But, after that, the film becomes a mess of subplots and double-crosses, some of which make no sense whatsoever. (What was all of that about facial surgery?) The movie introduces way too many characters, and then usually kills them off before we get to know them. And then we have the Agent 47 character. He’s an enigma, fine, I can live with that. But, it’s difficult to tell exactly what he’s thinking at times. He is sarcastic and sardonic or did Olyphant just play him that way (due to talent or a lack thereof)?

To be honest, I hadn’t expected a great story, but I did assume that the movie would have some big dumb action scenes. And yes, there are action scenes, but they are very run-of-the-mill and an uninspired. Things blow up, 47 shoots everyone in sight, but any of these scenes could have been taking place in any action film. At no point during these scenes did Agent 47 do anything that we haven’t seen other action heroes do. The only aspect that I found unique were the uniforms worn by the Russian soldiers (police?), which resembled the enemies from the video game Killzone.

I’m not sure how fans of the Hitman games will react to the film, but those looking for a good action movie will be disappointed. Despite the presence of some well-known faces (two of which are on hit TV shows), the movie feels like something which would go directly-to-video or play on basic cable. The story is absurd and murky and the action scenes are fairly small and unimpressive. (If you’re looking for something on the same level as Bond or Bourne, you will be disappointed). If I were Timothy Olyphant, I would ask, “I shave my head for this?”

Hitman simply murders on DVD courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film has come to DVD in a variety of formats. The R-rated cut DVD contains both a widescreen and full-frame version of the film. The unrated DVD contains only the widescreen version. For the widescreen version, the film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. Keeping in mind that I was watching one of Fox’s preview discs, which notoriously look bad, the image here was OK. The picture did show some artifacting and video noise, but otherwise, it was sharp and clear. There was no obvious grain and no defects from the source material. The colors looked fine and the image was never overly dark. The DVD carries both a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track as well as a DTS 5.1 track. Both tracks provide clear dialogue and sound effects, but I’ve got to give the DTS track a slight edge when it comes to bringing the action scenes to life. Every explosion and gunshot rocked the room during these scenes and the bullets zipped from the front channels to the surround speakers. The action scenes may be ho-hum, but they sound great.

The extras on the Blu-ray are identical to those on the DVD.