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Wanted
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov Starring: James McEvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman Synopsis: Wesley Gibson is a nobody cubicle slave who hates his nothing life, his job. He hates his overbearing boss. He hates the fact that his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend. He hates the fact that he knows he’ll never do anything about any of it. Until, one day, a sexy woman called Fox enters his life and tells him his whole existence has been a sham, and in fact he’s the son of an assassin who’s just been killed himself. Wesley is invited to join the Fraternity, a team of assassins who use Fate to guide their kills.
A decidedly juvenile, adult oriented action fantasy, Wanted delivers the required Summer Blockbuster popcorn rollercoaster ride. Taking one of the most un-pc comic-books out there (in which supervillains can act with impunity seeing how they killed off all the costumed heroes and brainwashed the planet), screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas have faithfully represented the more believable elements (Wesley’s crappy life, his narration, his “training”) and ditched the costumes, supervillains and transdimensional attacks. They have also tweaked the organisation Wesley is recruited into from a bunch of supercriminals to a Fraternity who only kill those that Fate has decreed need to be killed to save countless other lives.
Cutting out all the supervillain stuff doesn’t mean there’s no action though. Anyone who’s caught the trailer will have seen the moment when Wesley is picked up by Fox (Jolie), a dizzying moment of defying the laws of physics. When watching the amazing opening sequence, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to The Matrix – both share a moment of sheer cinematic genius that sends a little shiver down the spine. Unfortunately part of the movie’s impact is deadened purely by the fact that The Matrix was here before it. I’m not trying to say that the story is the same, but it strives for the same targets and while stylistically the two movies are poles apart, at the back of your mind you can hear a voice saying, “it’s been done”. Much has been made of Angelina Jolie being in this movie, the epitome of bad gal with gun. But really she gets to do very little except act as sexy window dressing, all cool tattoos and heavy eyeliner. The only moment she breaks into a sweat is when she works over Wesley with some knuckle dusters as part of his “training”.
There are some interesting ideas being presented here and the plot does go to one place that was a little unexpected (at first), a moment of pure greek tragedy which is going to knock a few people. In the end, everything goes boom with a very good two-fisted gun battle which reminded me of classic John Woo. James McEvoy’s Wesley has at this point transformed before our eyes from the put-upon meek manchild to a confident killer and providing some choice moments along the way, such as when he finally turns on his boss and best friend. Director Bekmambetov brings the same level of visual style that he utilised to great effect on both Nightwatch and Daywatch, although Wanted is a much more coherent movie than either of those.
Verdict: Slick action scenes and comicbook violence make up for the fact that this was beaten to the punch by Neo. Very entertaining while you're watching it, but will be forgotten about pretty quickly. 6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)
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