Movie : Wanted
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Angeline Jolie, Morgan Freeman
Rating: **1/2
A friend who watched Wanted recently with his girlfriend, said halfway through the film they had to leave because she couldn’t take it anymore. “She thought it was too macabre,” he said ruefully. “But I loved it. Maybe I’ll watch it with the boys on the weekend.”
That pretty much sums up this blow-‘em-up: It’s a film for the boys, for sure, and for anyone else who likes slick, incredibly fast-paced action, with some gore tossed in for good measure. But Timur Bekmambetov’s film about assassins also creates a sense of déjà vu.
Air rippling like water, a bullet leaving the gun and later exiting a person’s head in slow motion, people flying from one rooftop to another – we’ve seen it all in The Matrix and its countless knock-offs. When a film begins to rely more on FX and less on stunts, cinematography and story, it shows.
The story begins with Wesley, a nervy, beaten-down accountant in a dead-end job and relationship. His best friend is having an affair with his girlfriend, his boss keeps picking on him and he is perpetually on pills to fight off a heart condition.
Then one day he gets abducted by a secret outfit called the Fraternity and learns that he has a special gift. The group wants him to join them; he holds out, then gives in, and goes on a mission to ferret out his father’s killer and seek revenge. Somewhere along the way he finds – and here’s a spoiler alert – that someone has been double-crossing him.
The best thing about the film is its action sequences. Bekmambetov doesn’t hold back on the thrills, flipping, twisting and mangling cars, having shooters bend bullets and spilling more than necessary of the red stuff. And what’s a boy’s flick without some oomph?
Cue Angelina Jolie as the steely, seductive agent called – what else? – Fox. She’s mean, ruthless and sizzling, and fits the role perfectly, James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland, The Chronicles of Narnia) plays the flunky who discovers himself, and his new purpose, and is great as the self esteem-challenged Wesley; he’s even getting used to being bloodied in every film and makes the transition from reticent to confident well enough. But he’s unconvincing as a suave killer.
He biggest waste has been Morgan Freeman as the shadowy head of the Fraternity. The script is quite tight, though it begins to slacken as a parallel plot unfolds. Still, 'Wanted' is a great film for an afternoon of mindless violence, accompanied by some of the best FX filmgoers have ever seen.