Like seemingly every third big studio movie this summer, Wanted is based on a superhero comic, a 2003 six-issue series of the same title.
In it, thinly-veiled versions of DC Comics supervillians have conquered the world and rule it from behind the scenes, lulling us into thinking that superheroes are just things in comics, movies and bad TV shows from decades ago. Perhaps due to legal reasons—I’m talking some thin, thin veils over those DC characters—the movie adaptation takes practically nothing from its comic source: The title, a couple of characters’ names, two lines of dialogue and…that’s about it, actually.
That in and of itself wouldn’t really be a problem, at least not as problematic as where director Timur “Night Watch” Bekmambetov gets his inspiration instead: The Matrix movies. You would think that Matrix Revolutions would have been the stake through the heart of Matrix mimicry, but here we have a guy with extraordinary superpowers in a business suit jumping through an office building, gun-fu, bullet time, a sleepy-eyed office drone recruited into a war he’s never heard of, and on and on.
That office drone is Wesley Gibson played by James McAvoy as a panic attack-prone pussy who everything always seems to go wrong for. All that changes when he’s recruited by The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old group of Freemason-like weaver/assassins who worship a self-propelling loom called “The Loom of Fate.” Leader Morgan Freeman inspects the textiles with a magnifying glass and decodes its binary patterns to form a hit list; the assassins operate on the “What if you could kill Hitler while he was still too young to grow a moustache?” principle of “kill one, save a thousand.”
McAvoy’s character is recruited by Angelina Jolie, creatively code-named “Fox,” which, come to think of it, describes the entirety of her role pretty well. She subjects him to a training regime that’s a bit like the torture porn version of The Karate Kid, and before you know it he’s shooting bullets along curved trajectories and killing people with convoluted cart stunts. But something’s rotten in this thousand year-old loom-worshiping conspiracy of assassins, and the only way to save the day is by shooting things. A lot.
Wanted is, at its core, a deeply stupid movie, but its main players are more than talented enough to sell this brand of stupid. Many of the action sequences may be derivative of Matrix derivatives, but they’re well conceived and executed enough, and there’s at least a couple of really cool moments (including Wesley’s creative use of an ergonomic keyboard and, hell, the preview audience I saw it with really loved it every time Freeman dropped an F-bomb).
But there’s nothing here that hasn’t already been done much, much better in, say, Shoot ‘Em Up (the action scenes) or Fight Club (the de-pussificiation of modern man throughline), the latter of which seems to have been almost as big an influence as The Matrix.
Other than Mrs. Pitt, is there any good reason to see this movie?
“Wanted is, at its core, a deeply stupid movie”
That has to be the best and most simple way to put it. Although there were a few good moments (including the keyboard incident) they just don’t make up for the sheer ‘poop’ that this film was comprised of.
@The Grip: Other than learning that even Academy Award winners can make poor choices, no, there is no reason
This film is the worst film i have seen in a long time. The visual effects are okay… but aside from that he story line is terrible, the acting is terrible and the film is so utterly ridiculous i found myself wanting to leave within the first 30 mins. If you are a 12 year old boy or you have a mentality of one you may find it half decent. If not DONT BOTHER.
From my personal point of view the comic book it’s quite better than the movie one, i think that’s a common thing related to many movie-comic…Well, if you are interested in my review about this one and many others try to check this out ^^ http://www.nbmodena.org/2008/07/04/il-film-del-weekend-wanted/ …Cya!!
This film is the worst film i have seen in a long time. The visual effects are okay… but aside from that he story line is terrible, the acting is terrible and the film is so utterly ridiculous i found myself wanting to leave within the first 30 mins. If you are a 12 year old boy or you have a mentality of one you may find it half decent. If not
I also suffer from panic attacks and i can manage it by deep and slow breathing. i also practice meditation.. *
i dun really noe angeline so much…but i love her character..
one of the dumbest movies i have ever seen. I was cracking up the whole time how incredibly unfeasible the entire movie was. All it is good for is a laugh.
Wanted was the most retarded idiotic movie I have ever seen, it in all literal censes sucks the sweat from a dead mans balls the makers actors and anyone else who was involved with this film should take a lesson from it and kill themselves by curving the bullets into there brains. I want my 2 hours of life back!!!!!
Ohhh and Angelina, brangelina my career is in a slumpalina so ill adopt some kids(alina) and pretend to care about some victims of an earthquake, was the worst character of them all
go back to playing doctor with your brother Angelina and spare us your awful idiotic films
My God!
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