The Killer is the latest movie adapted from a comic that people are talking about. So it’s time to throw my fat in. Including what the movie does the original French graphic novels right and how it misses a crucial detail.
The Killer (Le Tueur)
The graphic novel series is best described as Barry meets American Psycho. But only because I doubt people have heard of Golgo 13. The title character (we’ll call Le Tueur) is a plain and simple hitman: no ethics, no loyalties, no ideals. You need somebody dead, pay him a case full of cash and he’ll whack them no questions asked. But if you think you’re getting an escape or power fantasy, you’ve got the wrong service.
Sure he’s got money, concealed firepower, and sleeps with models, but the killer is incredibly boring. He’s an antisocial monologuist who talks to himself so much you’ll wish the hit was over sooner. Only to find that his kills aren’t that engaging with the clean ones so distant that you don’t feel the effect. When something goes wrong, it looks desperate and ugly.
Honestly that’s the main idea: demystifying the magnificent bastard. Anybody who chose to become an assassin because they were good at it isn’t supposed to be glamorous.
Why Is This A Series?
So how did Le Tueur’s original series last 15 years? With a followup in less than 10 no less? At first it was the suspense from when the hitman’s actions come back to bite him. There are thrills especially in the artwork by the artist Luc Jacamon where reality seems to shift out of place. But later it comes to the characters who flesh our killer out. People like the talkative cartel man Mariano Schloss and the killer’s girlfriend he has a son with. They add depth and character even this apparently cold-blooded assassin didn’t know he had.
So the Movie’s Killer?
Not the way you think. The movie mainly improve on the main thing that takes readers out of pages. It’s one thing to get a point across, but you can only take so much monologuing. Sure, we’re introduced to Fassbender’s character that way, but audiences experience how they took that aspect for granted. Here the scripting and Fassbender sell that talking to himself is a series of mantras. This gets audiences in the head of the Killer, to actually feel the amount of stress he’s actually under. So when the inciting incident happens and the monologues are replaced by ambient sounds like breathing and dead silence, audiences want the monologues back. Most of the time, they have to settle for short bursts of background music and the lyrics tell what the hitman’s feeling. This can be a sense of relief until a sudden stop ruins that.
It’s definitely a practical engagement technique that takes advantage of a medium. Sometimes that matters more than anything.
What’s Missing?
But there’s something I can’t ignore because this was critical to the graphic novels’ success. You see Le Tueur got himself in trouble because… despite his sociopathic mindset he’s still a vulnerable human who needs connection. The loneliness he experienced before a messy hit made him suicidal. Wasn’t even the hit about to happen that got Le Tueur out of it, his gun jammed. So after dealing with the lawyer who sold him out, Le Tueur began to change. He became more social, more willing to work with others and find love to make a more efficient killer.
As for Fassbender, his botched hit came down to bad luck. The rest of the movie is pretty much a big question; is this revenge for his girlfriend, one last job, wiping the slate clean, or getting to the root cause? Because there’s no money in this, or bloodlust, just reassurance that mistake was a fluke.
I don’t know, maybe the idea was to make more distance with the Killer. Definitely no new friends or sequel bait for them.
The Killer Perspective
Now I have to say that this does not a make bad adaptation. This movie kept the spirit of the source material while removing what can hold it back. All the while playing to the strengths of its medium instead of try to bring over everything scene-by-scene. I can tell you from experience that reading through the GNs can be a real chore in spite of the compelling context. Although I can definitely miss the surprises that come from the comics’ pacing like how Le Tueur can manipulate readers into thinking something else had happened. But that happens so randomly that a straightforward story with great sound effects made a better experience.
So for an adaptation score this gets 8.5/10.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.