The reviews are coming for David Fincher’s THE HITMAN and here’s what the critics are saying

David Fincher AND Michael Fassbender’S The hitman it recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and the reviews started pouring in. I went ahead and shared some of the things the critics have written about the film and, for the most part, it seems like this is a good film, but it misses the mark and isn’t as good as some of the other great films Fincher has made in the course of his film career.

The story of the film is an adaptation of Alessio Nolentand the synopsis reads, “After a fateful near miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, in an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.”

The book description reads: “A solitary and cold man, methodical and free from scruples or regrets, the assassin waits in the shadows, awaiting his next target. Yet, the longer she waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his composure. A brutal, bloody and stylish noir tale of a professional assassin lost in a world without a moral compass, this is a case study of a lone man, armed to the teeth and slowly losing his mind.

Read the reviews below and feel free to share your thoughts:

THR: “In many moments, the killer doesn’t do what many viewers might expect, and that unpredictability persists until the very end, but perhaps not entirely satisfyingly so. Let’s just say that morally, The Killer is all over the place, which might alienate some viewers. Others might delight in both the protagonist and the film’s leering, blunt attitude, which seems wholly, atheistically uninhibited by fear of a punishing deity or higher moral purpose.

The playlist: “David Fincher is rarely boring, and “The Killer” may not take the filmmaker’s filmography in that direction, but neither will he push himself towards the pinnacle of his work. An expertly crafted crime thriller crafted by a technical team as attentive to detail as the director at the helm of the ship, the Netflix production is entertaining but a little orthodox. The good news is: even if this is not the best Zodiacit’s not miserable MankOR.”

Irish Times: “The film offers confirmation that Fincher can be at his best when he is most closely connected to the genre. Zodiac and Seven were essentially detective novels and both were close to perfect. Mank’s ambition eventually led to pretentious confusion. The Killer allows them to exercise their perfectionist instincts in gritty entertainment that makes emotional distance a virtue. It could turn out to be Fincher’s first self-help film. Is the protagonist advised to live by the initialism WWJWBD? I mean ‘What would John Wilkes Booth do?’”

Time: “It looks like Fincher is having a lot of fun with The Killer. Even if he takes it seriously as an action masterpiece, there’s nothing too serious about it… Despite everything, Fassbender is a very good nameless killer with a secret conscience. In his best sequence, he sits still, listening intently to the person he loves the most, absorbing the reality of what this person has had to endure to protect his identity as the Nameless Killer Man. The held anguish on his face us says it all. Even just watching Fassbender walk is a pleasure: he has a lanky, feline step, it’s hard to imagine that he can go unnoticed on the street, even disguised as a neat but boringly dressed German tourist, but it doesn’t matter. Like Popeye, he is what he is. Only, unlike Popeye, he’s too discreet to brag about it.”

The Guardian: “It’s all refreshingly absurd, yet the sheer conviction and deadpan concentration that Fassbender and Fincher bring to this anonymously professional ballet make it great fun. And there are times when the veneer of realism is unnerving: is it really true that you can pass through a door protected by a remote control simply by photographing it with your phone and then ordering a copier from Amazon? Perhaps it is… This is a thriller of sheer surface and style, handled with extraordinary talent and Fassbender’s inscrutable and tormented face is perfect for it.

Vanity Fair: “Here and there, The Killer delivers. There is a clever and invigorating fight scene in a house at night in Florida, a brawl of guns, fists and household utensils. It must have taken days to film, due to many technical requirements and Fincher’s famed penchant for filming. The final product is stunning, a grimy pas de deux that Fincher ends with some blunt punctuation. This is an interesting and persuasive aspect of the film: its frequent reminders that death is not an inherently operatic fact usually leave no room for poetic final words or terse goodbyes.

Vulture: “The time to mothball the philosophical hitman subgenre is long gone, but David Fincher’s The Killer could rekindle the debate again. Filled with skilfully composed sequences undone by the protagonist’s incessant remarks about the meaninglessness of existence, the film feels like an attempt to highlight its own emptiness… All of Fincher’s pictures ultimately question their heroes’ conception of the world, and The Killer is no different. Ultimately, it’s a film about one’s own uselessness.”

Little White Lies: “There’s also the dry sense of humor we’ve come to expect, which Fassbender boldly delivers. For such a professional, this hitman is going through a rather extraordinary period of bad luck, and it is amusing to see him repeatedly trying to extricate himself from a new mess, while repeating that he is a professional, detached from his work above all. other. Perhaps there isn’t as much to ponder as we have so far Zodiac OR The girl with the dragon tattoo, but as a character study, it’s fascinating that a man who talks so much can say so little, and Fassbender’s cold, indifferent gaze is apt for a man who looks more like a shark in a bucket hat… It’s not exactly an ambitious studio plot for someone like Fincher, but it’s certainly compelling, and the cryptic and constantly evasive protagonist is an enigma that lingers after the credits roll. After all, how can someone so bloody come out really clean?”

The film’s verdict: “Fincher’s The Killer comes to the screen with typical directorial style and artistry, but even when he reunites with Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (adapting a French graphic novel), there’s nothing in this hitman (seemingly emotionless but fragile inside) who is strikingly different from thousands of other big-screen hitmen (who are seemingly emotionless but fragile inside)… Despite all the inherent familiarity of the hitman genre, Fincher and Walker have nevertheless created a compelling story; what it has to offer that differs from countless similar tales lies in the minutiae rather than the chaos.

The Killer has been in the works for almost three years and Fincher has re-teamed with the Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker to write the screenplay. The film is also the protagonist Tilda Swinton, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell and more.

Netflix will release the film later this year on November 10, 2023.