Movie Review: WANTED
“It is the choice each us must make…to be ordinary, pathetic, beatdown, coasting through a miserable existence like sheep herded through fate.”
For director, Timur Bekmambetov, WANTED, is anything from an ordinary action film that you have seen every summer. This film really brings a unique visual experience to the action movie genre that even differs itself from recent innovative films like The Matrix.
WANTED is a very visceral story that brings action storytelling to a whole new level in a somewhat unexpected way that comes in the form of James McEvoy who’s performance drives this movie home from the get go. McEvoy plays Wesley Gibson, a 25-year-old account manager, who is a pathetic, cubicle-dwelling hypochondriac. McEvoy was a very interesting casting choice initially due to the fact he didn’t seem like the type of guy for this type of movie or character but that unexpectation really brought something different to the role but ultimately the movie.
Bekmambetov, makes this type of movie different in another way being that the story is very cynical, especially the beginning act where we see Wes’ transformation from his everyday life in such a real, dark but humorous way which is something that the graphic novel this film is based on was a little hard in doing. As mentioned the film revolves around 25-year-old Wes who is the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chews him out hourly, his girlfriend ignores him routinely [and even sleeps with his so-called best friend] and his life plods on interminably. Everyone is certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. It seems there is little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox, played by Angelina Jolie. This sensual and mysterious women brings something new to Wes’ life, a purpose. No longer does Wes have to be a “sheep herded through fate” he can be a wolf.
McEvoy really brings so much believability to this character that you can see he really is an everyday guy but that he is not even that…he is below average it isn’t like he takes glasses off and BAM! he is a superhero or an awesome action guy…he is nothing and you see him become something amazing. Throughout the film we see this and it is cool to see.
WANTED is a must see film that adult audiences will really enjoy. It is also a fanboy delight because the first 40 minutes are scene for scene from the graphic novel and according to author/co-producer Miles Millar,
“that was shocking and unexpected…I didn’t think it would be scene for scene but they took captions and made them into voice overs, dialogue was lifted straight from the book…I was very pleased.” - Universal Press Junket
Lastly, WANTED brings a great supporting cast of big screen veterans, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie, but also some lesser known actors like Common and Thomas Kretschmann have a really good flair and fit nicely into the film.
Overall WANTED is a huge surprise and to quote Adam after the screening, “after getting kicked in the groin so many times this summer, this movie really delivers in all sorts of ways.”
This movie gets 3.5 stars out 4
Fused Film Contributor Review - by: The Professor
This is a review we let a fan of the site write and invited to the movie screening of WANTED a few weeks ago. Check out his comments on the film.
If you are looking for a thoroughly entertaining, excessively action packed escape from reality, then “Wanted” is a must see this summer. “Wanted” is a thrilling cinematic adaptation of the graphic novel by Mark Millar starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman.
The movie begins with a spectacular confrontation between two notorious assassins, one of which is the father of Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), an insignificant account manager working a dead end job and living an extremely unsatisfactory life. Gibson’s personal significance and meaning in life are depicted as overwhelmingly and even pathetically mundane. The only thing unusual or remarkable about Wesley’s life is the repetitive anxiety attacks that seem to seize him anytime he is put under pressure. Yep, Wesley Gibson was a true nobody, until he is visited by Fox (Angelina Jolie), a gorgeous, lethal assassin who reveals to Wesley that his true identity is the son of one of the greatest assassins to have ever lived. Wesley is taken to meet the leader of an ancient assassin’s guild known as the “Fraternity” led by Morgan Freeman, aka “Sloan.” Wesley is informed of his true identity and calling and given a mission, to kill the man who killed his father. From this moment of personal epiphany, Wesley is shown and rigorously taught the art of killing, something that the movie presents as an innate and inherent skill and one that Wesley naturally possesses. In a matter of six weeks Wesley Gibson goes from “Joe Nobody” to “Joe the Enforcer and Weapon of Fate.” The movie reaches its climax in a series of action packed face-offs and ends with a clever finale.
“Wanted” does an excellent job of dealing with the themes of identity and purpose in a fantastic and unreal manner, making it both compelling and entertaining. Sure, you have to immediately suspend your disbelief and allow for the unnatural, unless you think “curving” bullets, leaping like Neo in the Matrix, or breaking about every natural law in the universe is natural. But, the movie takes up ideas of fate, identity, and one’s calling in life and packages them in a visually stunning movie held together by a strong story that pleases the movie lover as well as the more literary minded fan of the graphic novel. And while the performances by Jolie and Freeman are both top notch, James McAvoy stands out in an authentic performance that sells both the nobody image as well as the cold-blooded, trained assassin persona.
I would definitely give “Wanted” the old thumbs up and 3 out of 4 stars. So, if you are an apathetic account manager, bored bank teller, or repressed retail clerk then never fear, because as fate may have it, you could really be a highly efficient, lethal enforcer of justice with the handy ability to curve bullets and just not know it yet.
