Wanted (2008)
Wanted
Directed By: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie
Reviewed By: Ken Mooney
Rating: Three-Out-Of-Five Bananas
So you’ve spent years waiting, and it’s finally here: at last you have the chance to see Angelina Jolie in a film about…yep, knitting assassins. Cool, or what?
So that might be a somewhat tenuous description, but it’s true: Wanted features Jolie as Fox, an assassin who works for The Fraternity, a league of assassins who carry out missions according to the cloth woven by an unmanned loom and interpreted by Sloan (Morgan Freeman.) When the father he never knew (also a member of The Fraternity) is killed by a rogue agent, it falls to his son, the mundane and totally boring Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) to inherit his skills, join up with the gang and avenge his death. And then it gets even more convoluted.
As far as ridiculous plots go, it’s up there with the best (or worst) of them, but thankfully neither the plot nor the cast take themselves too seriously. With the scene all set for a mindless, adrenaline-fuelled action romp, how can you go wrong?
Well, quite easily apparently: for a film that promises such amped up action, there’s so much plot to go through that the film trundles along with an exposition that’s so long and drawn out, you could probably knit a pair of socks. Somewhat frustratingly, it’s a necessary evil though, as it’s all in the name of Gibson’s training and character-building (by which James McAvoy gets turned from prissy romantic lead into action hero.)
McAvoy’s transformation works quite well: he’s the Everyman whose life sucks, suffering from early-21st century ennui, panic attacks and an unhealthy obsession with his ergonomic keyboard, but what with him being an actor and all, he has just the right amount of tortured conscience and cocky swagger to pull off the assassin gig. Heck, he might even get the girl (more on that to follow.) It’s refreshing to see the leading man beaten down and bloodied up in a way that few films dare to show. So far, so very very Fight Club. It’s just a pity that McAvoy’s attempts at an American accent are so, like, totally American that they’re painful to listen to.
Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, is her typical self, smouldering away every second she spends on screen and bringing the same cool attitude she does to her action roles. Like when she was in Mr and Mrs Smith…where she also played…a…smouldering…but likeable assassin…yeah. Great as she is, it comes across as a bit of a performance-by-numbers and by the film’s close, it’s hard not to feel that she and Fox have gotten a raw deal out of the plot. Her chemistry with McAvoy is believable, but never quite worked out to its full extent, which has pros and cons. Professional etiquette and all.
Action-wise, if you can live with a few ludicrously brilliant action sequences spread out over two-hours, you’ll get the pay-off with Wanted. Unless you saw the trailer, which might’ve spoiled those a bit for you. With such an epic feel to Bekmambetov’s Night Watch, the same sense of awe is somewhat lacking from Wanted, which has its moments, but needs a bit of a kick-start. Even when the inevitable plot twists set in, they’re offset by such a local, personal feel that attempts to portray the global scale of The Fraternity (and the film itself) feels somewhat forced.
Given that Wanted is based on a comic-book, it doesn’t come across that way: again, it’s one of those things that works for and against it (since the comic includes a lot more violence, blood, some superheroes and a poo-monster.) It’ll probably prove a bit more successful having been toned down (though Dogma has left me really wanting more poo-monsters than mainstream cinema is prepared to show) but a little more all-out nonsensical action never hurt anyone. Much.
Verdict:
Thoroughly enjoyable, mindlessly great action flick, and much better than the majority of comic-or-video-game-to-film adaptations, but in the post-The Matrix/Kill Bill world, it isn’t cutting any new ground.
Originally published on FrankTheMonkey.com