Ink movie review: Wanted
Web producer Trevan McGee and writer Monica Watrous reviewed “Wanted,” the high-impact action thriller based on a graphic novel. He’s in it for the action. She’s in it for, um, a different kind of action. Warning: spoilers ahead.
Trevan: Forget responsibility — “Wanted” is all about the power. Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy, is a run-of-the-mill office schlub grinding out his meager existence, one day at a time, until he discovers he’s actually assassin royalty, son of the world’s greatest killer. After he’s recruited into the secret society, stupidly titled The Fraternity, he begins a rigorous training montage to become a world-class killing machine with the help of the MILF-tacular Angelina Jolie.
Here’s the problem with “Wanted”: it can’t decide which movie it wants to be. The film revels in the awesome carnage Wesley and his crew wrought on the innocent and the guilty in one scene, and in the next it awkwardly tries to shoehorn a moral fiber onto the characters, specifically Wesley, justifying every dead bystander as necessary for the greater good.
Stylistically, the movie can’t decide what it wants to be, either. One second it conjures images of “Fight Club,” with its cookie-cutter office cubicles and Wesley’s dry, monotone voiceover. At other times it drips of “The Matrix,” with its secret world, leather-bound assassins and its frequent use of slow-motion and bullet time.
Monica: Or “The Princess Diaries”! Seriously, though, when you think about it, it’s the same formula. Wesley is plucked from obscurity and handed an exciting new identity. He trades in a ghastly blue windbreaker and unfortunate haircut (the male equivalent of frizzy hair and glasses) for a dangerously sexy leather jacket and newfound confidence. Morgan Freeman is the new Julie Andrews.
Trevan: Yeah, I kept waiting for him to break into song, all Julie Andrews-like, but it never came. Instead I just got him using the rare and powerful “motherfucker,” a word Freeman uses with such conviction that if he says it more than five times in his career, the world will end. Seriously, that moment in the movie got as many cheers from the crowd as anything else in the two-hour killing spree.
The violence here isn’t just frequent, it’s the strongest part of the movie. The opening shootout on the rooftop and the soon-to-be infamous slow-mo-bullet-through-the-head sequence is awesome and sets the tone for the entire movie. After you see Wesley’s father leap the gap between two skyscrapers, killing everything in his way, all of the other action sequences — curving bullets, crashing cars into trains, driving on the side of buses — don’t just seem plausible, they’re downright necessary.
Monica: And all that ridiculousness is anchored by strong performances from Jolie and McAvoy. While the dialogue ventured into George Lucas land (read: cheesy and over-the-top), the pair ably delivered comedy and drama in equal doses. Comes as no surprise since we’ve seen both performers tackle both capacities in other films.
Plus, McAvoy’s just so hot. Skinematic spoiler alert: The audience gets a flash of what may or may not be Jolie’s ass, yet the director found no occasion for our hero to drop trou? I’m holding out for the deleted scenes.
Trevan: Um, yeah. Anyway, rather than fully embrace the elements that make “Wanted” completely impossible, and totally cool, director Timur Bekmambetov inserts more unnecessary explanations. Wesley can see in bullet time because his heart beats 400 times a minute and dumps massive amounts of adrenaline into his system. And the way these elite assassins repair themselves from all the damage they put their bodies through? Two words: day spa. Sometimes elements are better left unexplained. Let the audience fill in the gaps.
Monica: So, as a feel-goods-only type of gal, I generally avoid action films. Does that make me shallow and uncultured? You bet. But I’ve got to say, even if McAvoy wasn’t in just about every scene, I might enjoy “Wanted” for the ass-kicking alone. Except, of course, when McAvoy’s boyishly beautiful face is pounded to a pulp.
Trevan: I liked watching McAvoy get beat on. Especially after being subjected to his grueling, whiny voice for the first part of the movie. Ditto on the nudity. Two seconds isn’t enough. But it’s more skin that we’ll see in any other superhero movie this summer, unless you count half of Will Smith’s ass in “Hancock.”
To the movie’s credit, it takes full advantage of the R rating. And being one of this summer’s only R-rated action movies, it better. My friend Eric made a good point after the screening about how the muscle-bound action heroes of the ’80s and ’90s have been replaced with the everyman. Again, it happens in “Fight Club,” “The Matrix” and just about every other comic book movie, but it works. Making the main character even more accessible heightens the escapism — and that’s what “Wanted” is both in the comic book and on the screen — utter escapism.
Monica: I’m sorry, “the everyman”? I wish every man looked like him…
Trevan: Wesley’s total freedom puts him above any obligations, including work, finances and relationships, it allows him the kind of carte blanch most people can only dream of. In the comic he takes this freedom to its most sadistic ends. Here, he gets bogged down with plot twists and forced morality before he gets to fully embrace his newfound freedom. He gets two quick kill in, then the plot gets heavy-handed.
Despite its ridiculousness, and partially because of it, “Wanted” can be a lot of fun. Turn your brain off and its breezy kitsch, with enough one-liners, humor and enough large-scale mayhem to entertain.
Monica: Speaking of real fun, how come the only sex scene in this film is between two peripheral characters? The previews tease at a Jolie/McAvoy hookup, but that plot thread goes underexplored. Granted, the film runs long enough without establishing a romantic subplot. And here’s how “Wanted” diverts from that all-too-familiar template found in “The Matrix,” “Fight Club” and “The Princess Diaries” — sex is subtracted from the equation. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be one of the summer’s sexiest flicks.
Final Score (out of 5):
Trevan: 2 Stars
Monica: 3 Stars
Ok...I must be missing something...I read the review but I don't see any ratings?
I.e. 3 out of 5, 4 out of 5? There is a great review up already from last night's preview of Hancock. It is a blog by Thaddeus (Frinkblog) if you haven't seen it yet. Movie Review: Who the hell is "Hancock"?