Wanted

English/110 Minutes/2008/Rated R

“Wanted” is a great summer action flick that triumphs more in style than in depth. The story follows Wesley Gibson who is miserable as a cog in the work-a-day world. His girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend, his boss abuses him and he constantly frets over his extraordinary insignificance. One day that all changes when he learns that the father he never knew, one of the greatest assassins that has ever lived, was recently murdered.

He is then recruited by The Fraternity, a group of assassins of whom his father was a part. We follow Wesley through the inevitable training sequence (that manages not to fall into the montage trap) and on his early missions as he builds up his skills to tackle his father's killer. The Fraternity itself is a fascinating hodgepodge of characters with standouts being Fox, (Angelina Jolie in a role she is born to play) and Morgan Freeman cast against type as the leader of this gang of assassins. Wesley is played by one of my favorite actors, James McAvoy (Atonement, Last King of Scotland) and he does a spectacular job at selling Wesley's insignificance while equally well portraying his powerful side.

Visually the film is great and while being utterly over the top never falls into the realm of self-parody that was the undoing of “Shoot 'Em Up.” It helps that it is directed by the great visual stylist Timur Bekmambetov (Nightwatch, Daywatch) in his English language debut. Timur fills the screen with impossible action that somehow remains feasible and all the more pleasurable for it. A close comparison would be “Live Free or Die Hard” another over-the-top action film that never quite crosses the line of credulity. A great example from “Wanted” is the scene where an assassin flips his car over another vehicle to fire down through an open sunroof. Completely ridiculous, absolute pleasure.

“Wanted” is easily the most visually exciting movie I've seen this year. It's use of slow motion is stellar including long reverses (a bullet going through someone's head is traced back through time to the gun that fired it) and the visual representation of Wesley's different abilities is handled in such a way that the viewer immediately knows which sense he's using. There are other great visuals that I don't want to ruin by giving away. Suffice to say that the film is a visual treat and is Timur's best film to date.

Narratively the film is fairly pedestrian with the action set pieces really setting it apart. This is not to say that the film has no distinguishing and original ideas. The method of target selection for The Fraternity is interesting if a little bizarre, yet it is believable and interesting. Of course it helps that you have Morgan Freeman selling it to you (providing the gravity that he also gives in the recent Batman films). The film has some other great conceits that I won't ruin here and is great fun. I think it's safe to say that while there has been some criticism of the film's similarity to both Fight Club and The Matrix (nobodies who discover great power), “Wanted” is enough its own man that viewers who enjoyed those films won't mind the similarities.

In closing, the story of “Wanted” is familiar but it manages to overcome its familiarity with great style and a stellar cast. You'll be hard pressed to find a more exciting and fun summer movie than this. Highly Recommended.

Rated R for Strong Bloody Violence Throughout, Pervasive Language, and Some Sexuality