I know nothing about this director and never seen any of his other work. So based solely on the film 'Hitman' the director was the failure of this film being more of what sliver of good it was.

The overall acting and casting (other than Olyphant which did a really good job, better then this film deserved), were out of sync right where the director could have synced them.

The writing... had a favorable direction however fell short of giving it the mystic, excitement and believability it should have had.

Knepper... so good to see him and he was one of the better actors however even he couldn't save this thing.

The action sequences, fight scenes in particular, were not emotional and the editing was too fast to get any 'feel' from it let alone passion for it.

All in all, this could have been a 'very' good film, made an appetite for another installment and projected Timothy Olyphant more toward the 'other go to guy' for possible action and cool guy roles yet Xavier Gens, trying hard or not, seems to me responsible for none of that happening. (except 'maybe' a second edition could be on the way) And if so... better writer and director could make 'Hitman' the hit it should and could have been.