For the second time in as many weeks, we get a film with “Killer” in the title made by one of the best-working directors.

“The Killer” is the latest film from David Fincher, and stars Michael Fassbender as a professional hitman, who after a botched job must go on the run; Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O’Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton.

David Fincher is one of my favorite directors, with “The Social Network” and “Se7en” on my all-time list and his 2020 film “Mank,” which earned Fincher his third career Best Director nomination, finishing on my top 10 from that year. I was looking forward to “The Killer” since we’ve seen what Fincher can do with cold-hearted main characters and acts of violence, which is why I’m disappointed the film left me feeling both conflicted and indifferent.

Michael Fassbender is an underrated actor in my opinion, and should have won the Oscar both years he was nominated (for “12 Years a Slave” and “Steve Jobs”). Here he is cold and uncaring, yet dryly funny, as a hitman who takes pride in his craft. He isn’t given much to emote, but that’s likely the point (as I’ll get more into in a second), but Fassbender is able to give a B-grade Dexter Morgan turn.

Rest of the cast are glorified cameos, each having a scene or two just to push the thin narrative along. There’s no entertaining supporting character like we typically find in a Fincher film, which doesn’t help the film’s cold and removed sense.

As far as the action goes, it’s pretty well-staged, with some creative kills by Fassbender. There’s one hand-to-hand combat sequence that is fairly intense, but it’s lit so poorly and the sound mixing is pretty muffled (an issue that persisted throughout several sequences of the film) that it kind of lessened the impact of the scene.

Fincher’s direction style, and thus his films themselves, have always typically been calculated and a bit removed (outside perhaps “Fight Club,” which is probably his weakest career work that I’ve seen). That lends itself to following a professional killer who has determined there’s no such thing as morals, afterlife, or fate, and his actions are purely business. However with no entertaining or cheery supporting players, or a plot that offers many twists and turns, we are left feeling almost nothing throughout the runtime. There’s Fincher’s trademark cool and bluntness, but it’s almost to the point of self-indulgent. Similarly to Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” a globe-trotting adventure with a simplistic yet convoluted plot and nameless main character, “The Killer” is less of a return to form for Fincher so much as it is an accidental parody of his trademarks.

“The Killer” is the kind of film you know isn’t bad as you watch it, but you just keep waiting for the plot to kick in until suddenly 120 minutes later the credits are rolling. It hasn’t aged any better or worse in the day since I’ve seen it, and I’m not sure even a rewatch will change my feelings (unlike Scorsese films, which typically get better with each watch, when I see a Fincher my feelings—albeit typically positive—remain unwavering; but you never know). I wanted “The Killer” to be better than it is, but fans of Fincher’s more obvious trademarks should get a kick; though others may feel like they’ve been left out in the cold.

Critics Rating: 6/10