Review of Wanted (2008) by Aaron M — 18 Apr 2015

Action is not normally a genre I'm drawn to but when it's done without reservation, I can completely enter into it. I, normally, find that the genre always goes a little too far. That being the case, if your going to go far you night as well go all out and be as innovative as you possibly can. This can certainly claim to do that.

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a bored and downtrodden office worker who gets bullied by his boss while his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend. His life is a shambles. That is, until he is approached out of the blue by the mysterious Fox (Angelina Jolie), a highly trained assassin who is part of a secret society called the Fraternity. Wesley's father was also a member and now that he's recently deceased, Wesley is heir to the skills of a master hitman and the Fraternity bring him onboard.

In his first English language feature, director Timur Bekmambetov brings the similar style from his Russian vampire movies "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" and proves that he's a director that can certainly stage an action scene or two. There are cars that do 360 degree flips, people that leap from skyscrapers, bullets that collide with each other mid-air and even ones that bend round corners, buy hey, it's based on a comic-book by Mark Millar (also responsible for "Kick Ass") so anything goes right? The action scenes are sublimely hyper-stylised and delivered with a breathtakingly fast pace. It also stages a lot of the action in glorious slow-motion, encapsulating the moment and allowing the audience the wallow and appreciate even further.

To begin with, the film may instil a certain deja-vu as it borrows heavily from "Fight Club" in it's premise of a disheartened man, in a dead end job, that finds a new lease of life. Mainly what it incorporates though, is the balletic skills of Hong Kong action maestro John Woo and the gravity defying works of "The Matrix". Quite simply, it's ludicrous stuff but riotously enjoyable all the same.

McAvoy struggles a little with an American accent but for the most part he's good and his performance captures both a sense of humour and an impressive and convincing action ability. A heavily tattooed and vampish Angelina Jolie also gets her fair share of action moments, all-be-it, without much in the way of dialogue. As good as they are though, this is not a film that spends a lot of time or focus on character development. It's an action movie that doesn't pretend to be anything else and is all the better for it.

Visually astounding with a breakneck pace that rarely let's up. It's exciting, innovative and enjoyable, but most of all it's fun. Exactly how an action movie should be delivered.