After parking his acting career for a couple of years in favour of motor racing, Michael Fassbender returns to the day job in slick style with The Killer. It's a watchable-rather-than-classic revenge thriller from director David Fincher, here reuniting with Seven writer Andrew Kevin Walker to bring a French graphic novel series by Alexis 'Matz' Nolent and Luc Jacamon to screen life.
The Killer finds Fassbender's Hitman With No Name out to settle a score. "I'm not here to take sides," he tells the viewer early on in his chilly-meets-pithy narration - but that MO crumbles when things go south.
Made for Netflix and divided into streamer-friendly chapters, The Killer is very much Fincher returning to the genre mode of 2002's Panic Room and 2014's Gone Girl. When it comes to breathlessness, it's no Bourne, but the antihero allure of the bucket hat-wearing, Smiths-loving contractor gives Fassbender a perfect comeback role. The Killarney man and the American director should synchronise their diaries again. Top priority next time is a stronger ending.
Although there is fun to be had here with the character's aliases and nods to other films, The Killer is never too clever for its own good - a bit too clinical maybe - so you don't have to spot them to enjoy the ride. Fincher has described his assassin as someone who travels coach, and that also sums up the broad appeal of a movie that would shorten any flight.
One reference that won't go over anyone's head is the Bond joke near the end. There's many a true word spoken in jest...
The Killer is in cinemas now and arrives on Netflix on Friday 10 November.
