The TV Addict 

There’s something to be said for good old-fashioned guns, bullets, cars, and hot babes converging into a flurry of visually kinetic, pulse-pounding over-the-top action violence. All the more so when it occurs with creative relish and borderline fetishism yet without a single trace of apology. That’s exactly what Timur Bekmambetov’s WANTED does, and it’s precisely why it’s so much superficial fun.

The film starts out innocuously enough. Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a young man with no backbone. He works in a dead-end job where he gets repeatedly chewed out by his raging boss, suffers from crippling anxiety attacks, and pathetically turns a blind eye to the fact that his supposed best friend is sleeping with his grating girlfriend. Wesley, however, has a spine forcefully shoved into his back when Fox (Angelina Jolie) comes into his life (with a cacophony of guns, bullets, and cars), and informs young Wesley that he has a much greater destiny. He learns his estranged father was not only recently killed, but belonged to a guild of assassins called The Fraternity that take their orders from fate itself. To avenge his father’s death, Wesley must let the Fraternity unleash his inherent potential, and then realize his destiny. (On a side note, comic fans looking for a faithful adaptation of the graphic novel should look elsewhere, but not without hearing a choice word or two from me about the issue).

It’s a competent enough story, if a bit simple, but for an action film it does exhibit at least a decent stab at depth in its toying around with the nature of destiny and self-realization. It’s not always a successful effort, but it’s an effort. It’s not a huge loss anyway because a hefty story would have detracted from the film anyway, because WANTED is not a film about depth. It’s about its amusingly crass and uninhibited tone, and it’s about full on, unabashed action spectacle that gleefully flies in the face of all laws of physics. The film is not interested in subtlety or realism (no BOURNE style stuff here), it’s interested in what looks f—— cool, and boy does Bekmambetov (DAY WATCH, NIGHT WATCH) know what looks cool. It’s what makes up for moments when the film veers a little too far in the absurd (all I’ll say is “mice”), especially when we get some spectacularly well-orchestrated action sequences (the final shootout especially) that are just intoxicatingly fun.

That is WANTED’s ultimate strong suit. It’s high-quality, well-made (and of course superficial and fluffy) fun. That’s all it aspires to and knows it’s aspiring to, whether it be in the Tarantino way the F bomb gets thrown around, or the extreme violence, or the intense action sequences, or just some hilarious moments resulting from Wesley growing a pair as his transformation occurs.

As a result throughout the film you’ll find yourself often mimicking the charming sheepishly amused smile Fox (via Jolie) sports throughout every now and then. Because if you look closely enough you can see exactly what Fox is thinking: “This is pretty damn fun.” I couldn’t agree more.

Overall rating: B+