‘Wanted’ is Bloody Fun
-----Loosely based off of the comic book mini series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, ‘Wanted’ promised three things; bending bullets, insane stunts, and Angelina Jolie. Whether or not the story would please was beside the point (the plot does occasionally stray into the absurd on motivational levels). Regardless, this was going to be a film that mixed gun battles and superheroes, *ahem*, super-assassins.
-----Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is your standard pencil pusher who hates his life. His best friend is secretly having an affair with his girlfriend, his gelatinous boss continually aggravates him, and he’s going nowhere in his career. That’s when he finds out his father he never met died yesterday and just happened to be the world’s deadliest assassin. All of this news courtesy the steaming hot assassin Fox (Angelina Jolie). Turns out that not only was his father an assassin for the mysterious “Fraternity,” but he also had special abilities. Killed by rival assassin known as Cross, its Wesley’s turn to step up to the plate and start using these powers he never knew he had. He’ll be trained by the Fraternity and become one of their own in return for vengeance.
-----James McAvoy does an excellent job transferring from uptight loser in a cubicle to nonchalant gunslinger assassin. It’s this transformation that really makes the film something special. Angelina Jolie also has a good time as the sexy Fox. The final member of the mildly star studded cast is Morgan Freeman, as the calm and collected leader of the Fraternity. Together the stars and the rest of the cast have fun defying the laws of physics and shooting each other.
-----The action scenes are many and pack a punch to say the least. While some of the shooting may be repetitive considering about 800 people die in this movie, the style of it all maintains the level of entertainment. Acting as your over the top action movie and not trying to extend its bounds, ‘Wanted’ succeeds as summer popcorn entertainment, so long as you’re game for some far fetched fun. The cinematography is fun, catching many a flying car and following bullets around the screen with ease.
-----It’s the overall sense of care-free, in-your-face aggression that really makes the film enjoyable for the viewer not afraid to see a little blood fly across the screen. Strike that; not afraid to see a lot of blood fly across the screen. While vulgarity and gore do occasionally take over, and it can even be hard to root for the sometimes evil motives of the characters, you’ll probably still enjoy many of the no-bull lines and explosive action sequences. This is the one action junkies have been waiting for, and it adds a nice twist (if a somewhat ridiculous plot) to the shoot-em-up genre.
