Hitman misses the mark

The latest in a long line of videogame movie turkeys, Hitman has been getting reamed left and right by film critics. The Hollywood reporter recently posted an article listing its many flaws; from its emotionless main character (agent 47, played by Timothy Olyphant), to its clichéd plot to lame direction. Most other reviews have been negative as well, as the film is only 12% “fresh” on aggregate review site rotten tomatoes.

It’s really no surprise, considering the awful pedigree of movies based on games – just about every single one has been bad, from Super Mario Brothers back in 1993 to that atrocious Doom movie a couple of years ago. Really the only exception was the excellent wide-release documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters this summer, but that wasn’t a narrative fictional film based on a game franchise. So why is it that game movies are always terrible?

Part of the answer must be that the filmmakers really don’t “get it” when it comes to what made the game so special, or they just aren’t able to translate it into film. I’m sure some stereotypes about gamers’ intelligence come into play as well (note to production companies: action sequences are cool, but some of us like characters and plot as well.) Lets hope that gaming’s new mainstream status helps to alleviate these issues.

Read [Reuters]