First the good points: the tone of the video game was captured brilliantly (largely due to the extensive use of the game's soundtrack,) and there were some reasonable action sequences. Let's be honest here; who doesn't enjoy a mindless assassination movie? Olyphant did a pretty good job portraying Agent 47. His movement was rigid and calculated - which isn't really Oscar worthy acting, but it mirrored the game well enough. When you've got an iconic look like 47's black suite and red tie you're bound to succeed in recreating a character. The Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat movies failed in this regard - perhaps because those characters were wearing costumes that don't translate into outfits that you'd find in reality.

Oh, and the kids playing  Hitman in the hotel when 47 is running from the Russian secret police? Love it. It's always refreshing when a movie or show is consciously self-referential.

Now for the bad parts.

“How will I find you?”

“Don't worry, I'll find you.”

Really? Come on. I will grant that the screenwriter might have been playing off the stereotypes of his genre, but hackneyed lines like that are so overused. It's like throwing declawed felines on a rust-covered chalkboard. Maybe the point was to be hokey, but the movie could have garnered more respect.

In fact, the entire tone of the movie was cookie-cutter, down to the obligatory love interest. “Shut up or I'll gag you,” says 47. “Oh you,” she smiles to herself. Though I did enjoy the unnecessary nude scenes.

The sword fight on the subway was a great idea. I don't know if there wasn't enough space, or time to practice, or proper choreography, or perhaps they just wanted to try something “creative,” but the way that they shot that scene just ruined that great idea. It was stomach wrenching how they sped up the film to hurry the pace of the fighting between 47 and the last surviving Agent. And none of those guys looked like trained killers.

One last thing. I'm not sure if I missed a scene somewhere, but was there a reason that the whole “set up” took place? Without spoiling it for anyone, the plot just ended with no explanation about what the bad guys were trying to accomplish. And the framework with the Interpol detective trying to catch his ghost was just tagged on to add a second perspective, I didn't really get all that invested in his search.

In short, the movie version of “Hitman” seemed like a gamer's attempt to write a script. I'm sure that he thought it was totally awesome, but when it comes to cinema it fell short. Way short. If you've got no discerning tastes about what a good character arc should be then there's no problem. But there could have been a really fantastic story in there about the abductee-turned-killer searching for redemption.

Maybe that's just not what the point was. And, like I said, I'd still recommend the movie. But next time, guys, try hammering out a good story before producing another video game clone for the big screen.