Wanted (Biased Review)

Wanted (2008) : Biased Review


Directed by: 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.

WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF BOTH THE WANTED MOVIE AND COMIC BOOK, DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANY DETAILS.

Okay so just as I promised, I am now doing a completely biased review of Wanted after having read the source material as a follow-up to my unbiased review. This review will be shorter as I'll just be listing the differences I liked and the differences I disliked.

THE GOOD:

1) The movie wasn't filled with passive-aggressive racism.
Okay, I'm not suggesting Mark Millar is a racist and perhaps the word "filled" is a bit of an exaggeration. But I often wonder why it was such a big deal that Wesley's boss was always referred to as his "African-American" boss.

2) Movie Wesley doesn't just accept the whole killer thing.
The Wesley in the movie reacts like any human being would react to the whole thing, he's afraid. He has doubts about himself and what he can do and has something to overcome rather than two minutes of "Oh no I can't do this" and then transitioning to "fuck it, lets go kill everyone."

3) Movie Wesley's leaving his job is so much more satisfying.
In the comic book, Wesley tells his entire office to fuck off and leaves because Fox makes him. In the movie, Wesley kicks ass and takes names and you practically cheer him on as he does it.

4) Movie Fox is deeper than a small puddle.
Seriously, come on. Fox was just an annoying racial stereotype with cat ears who got old after the first two panels she was in. I hate Angelina Jolie, but even she was an improvement over this. Or maybe you think lines like "Fuck 'em Wesley! If they was smart they wouldn't BE in this situation, right? Fuck 'em hard with your big steel gun!" is the modern equivalent to Shakespeare. I rest my case.

5) Movie Wesley's transition into villainy takes some thought.
Movie Wesley actually kind of feels bad about killing people even for good, comic Wesley is like "I shot this whole precinct of cops and I was gonna rape this woman but I just started crying." to which Fox replies something along the lines of, "Oh don't worry about that, it happens to all of us, you'll rape the shit out of her next time!"

6) Movie Wesley isn't a complete cockend
Writing 101, make your protagonist a character that your audience that can identify with. Apparently Mark Millar was writing to all the greedy self centered sociopathic fucks in the audience because I think I hated Wesley more than any other character in the book.

7) Wesley's training actually seems hard.
He had to kill a bunch of cows, shoot corpses, and get punched a lot. I could do Wesley's training in the book with seven fingers missing and a good case of Down's syndrome.


The Bad:

1) The Entire Supervillain element was scrapped:
While Shithead and Fuckwit wouldn't have translated well to film, it is strange that Fox and Wesley were really the only main characters kept over from the book. I realize some changes had to be made but changing a world of supervillains to a guild of assassins and losing the whole comic bookiness behind it all kind of takes away from it.

2) They seem to miss the point:
Wanted was a book about Super Villains taking the world back from Super Heroes and erasing their existence from the world turning it into a grittier darker existence which they themselves control. The movie has absolutely nothing to do with ANY of that, in fact it just starts pulling stuff out of its ass like hot tubs full of magic healing wax and explosive rats and shit.

3) The Loom
Seriously, what the fuck?


So there we have it, Wanted fixed pretty much all of the small problems that the book had but it overcorrected and scrapped everything but the first issue and 4 characters. It's a good movie but it's just not really Wanted in the true sense, no less it shouldn't stop you from seeing it.

I still give Wanted a 4 out of 5, get over it and go see the damn movie, maybe Watchmen will be more faithful.