Wanted

Wanted (2008) :Unbiased Review


Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelena Jolie

Other Actors of Note: Terence Stamp

Plot:"Wanted" tells the tale of one apathetic nobody's transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. In 2008, we're introduced to a hero for a new generation: 25 year old employed slacker, WESLEY GIBSON. Wes is the most disaffected, cube-dwelling, clock-punching drone this planet has ever known. His boss chews him out hourly, his girlfriend ignores him routinely, and his life plods on in interminable boredom and routine. Everyone knows this disengaged slacker will amount to absolutely nothing, and so does he, until he meets the sexy, foxy woman named FOX, and then everything changes. Wes' estranged father is murdered, and the deadly Fox recruits him into The Fraternity, a secret society that trains him to avenge his father's death, by unlocking his dormant powers. And oh boy does he have powers, as she teaches Wes how to develop his lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, he discovers that The Fraternity lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: to carry out the death orders given by emotionless Fate itself. Wes, with his wickedly brilliant and sexy tutor, plus the paternal guidance of The Fraternity's enigmatic leader, SLOAN, young Wes grows to enjoy all the strength and success he ever wanted. But, slowly, he realizes there's more to his dangerous associates than meets the casual eye. And, as he wavers between new found heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one can ever teach him; that he alone controls his destiny. Taken from www.imdb.com.

Don't make Angelina angry. You won't be able to suppress giggles when she's angry.

An unbiased review?! What on earth could that mean? Aren't all reviews in and of themselves biased? Hey semantics, I thought I told you not to bother me while I'm reviewing! Basically what this boils down to is I have not read "Wanted", the comic miniseries by Mark Miller and J.G. Jones. I will be judging this movie solely on its own merits, not on how good an adaptation it is. Now hold on, fans of the series, get the sand out of your vagina, I will be doing a biased review once I read the book, until then you're gonna have to dry your tears and read further, or don't, I'm sure there's 15 pages of Lolcats you could be reading now or something of that nature.

"Wanted" starts out by introducing us to Wesley (James McAvoy) a working class office drone with a bitchy girlfriend that's cheating on him with his best friend, a bitchy mountain of a woman boss who enjoys cursing more than I do, and basically the shittiest life anyone can think of.

This all changes when Wesley's father is assassinated after doing a bunch of kickass things like jumping between two sky scrapers and head-butting through a plate glass window (His superpower appears to be that he's a soccer hooligan) so Wesley is kidnapped by an elite group of super assassins known as "The Fraternity"

He first meets Fox (Angelina Jolackofactingtalent) at a grocery store where she gets in a big gunfight with the man who killed Wesley's father and then there's a big preposterous car chase and then we're introduced to Sloan (Morgan Freeman) who thankfully does not narrate this movie.

So anyway he trains to become an assassin, finds out that the anxiety attacks he has are actually super adrenaline rushes that give him the ability to shoot the wings off of flies and curve bullets and all that nonsense and that's all I can tell you about this without spoiling anything.

Head butting through CG glass: The most useless of super powers

So acting. You're probably expecting me to slam Angelina Jolie, but at this point it's really been said. She plays the same character she always plays the stoic bad ass women with a past where she lost someone very near and dear to her, she's mildly bitchy but in a cool way, she's the sex symbol of the film, most of her performance involves a pouty look whilst holding a gun or driving a car, so on and so forth. So yeah, Angelina Jolie does a great job at playing a 2 and a half dimensional character, moving on.

Morgan Freeman on the other hand, plays the same character as usual only EVIL. So pretty much the guy he played in "Dream Catcher", he doesn't play a big role but there is a certain pizazz to hearing him say "mother fucker." It's like watching Betty White call someone a douchebag, it never gets old.

The real stand-out here is Scottish actor James McAvoy. He looks and sounds like a cross between Zach Braff and Shia LaBeouf and you really buy him as the complete loser who suddenly becomes ultra badass, I hope to see more from this guy as he really does seem like a rising talent.

Driving over 100 miles an hour, laying on the hood of a sports car, firing a shotgun. Tooootally plausible.

The effects in "Wanted" are good. Did you ever want to see an action movie kick "The Matrix" in its stupid smarmy face? Wanted does that and more. We get something not tired and boring done with bullet time, we get car chases that make no sense and we don't care because they're awesome, we get a scene where a guy shoots a bullet to stop another bullet!

What Wanted does suffer from is having action so fast paced that the viewer can't tell what the ever loving Christ is going on on screen. You WILL get back that headache you got from watching "Transformers" as well as the upset stomach you got from "Cloverfield" back in full. When the film isn't blurry from spinning around or the director trying to get cute and pull the same shaky-cam crap that Christopher Nolan did at the end of "Batman Begins", the backgrounds get blurry and slow and it hurts your eyes as well as your head.

However, the fact that this movie out-awesomed "Shoot 'Em Up" when it comes to car chases and action sequences gives it a slight edge over all the shoddy camera work. This movie will probably work better on a small screen.

Wesley has seen "The Boondock Saints" too many times.

Storywise, Wanted starts out well then about the time they bring in the magic loom that gives the assassins targets from "Fate" it kind of ruins it, but you forget the magic loom and the story takes a turn that makes it good again.

To put it simply, "Wanted" is "Fight Club" with guns. Pure and simple, the story takes most of the same turns, the message is more or less the same, the narration is even similar. If you want to know whether you'd like this movie you have to ask yourself 2 questions. 1) Do I like "Fight Club"? 2) Do I like things that are awesome? If you answered yes, then happy viewing.

1942 called, they want their gun back.

"Wanted" is a balls to the wall action movie with a "fuck you" attitude (I know this cause they say it a lot) and a pretty decent plot.

I give Wanted an unbiased 4 out of 5. It isn't perfect but it's a lot of fun and should definitely be rented if not bought.


To those of you fans of the book I'll give a "real" review of this as soon as I read the series so quit your whining...fucking plebs.