Review of Wanted (2008) by Cindy H — 30 Dec 2014

I was pleasantly surprised! I have to say, I didn't expect much from WANTED. It reeked of Bruckheimer. I hadn't heard of the director, Timur Bekmambetov, so no help there. (After seeing the film, I looked him up on the internet; it seems he's big in Russia.) And, I saw the previews. The flick looked over-the-top...and it was, in all the best ways imaginable. I'd call it a guilty pleasure movie, but it's too good for that.

The plot is simple: Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a meek schlub who lets everyone take advantage of him until he is contacted by (and subsequently joins) a secret society of assassins known as The Fraternity. They think Wesley has a special gift. Once trained to use this gift, they think he might be the only badass skilled enough to take out the rogue assassin who killed their best employee...Wesley's father.

WANTED has a slow first act, and at first, I wasn't thrilled with James McAvoy as Wesley. He's such a whiny, unlikable kick-toy, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to enjoy the film. Fortunately, the flaws are in the character and not the actor. Wesley slowly grows a pair, and by the end of the film, I thought McAvoy was great. The supporting cast is also very good. Morgan Freeman uses his paternal wiles as the enigmatic leader of The Fraternity, Sloan. And if Angelina Jolie doesn't get you hot under the collar, you don't have a pulse.

If WANTED has a weak spot, it's the special effects. They run from awesome (fight scenes and car chases) to old-school (a train crash that looks like a model engine cleaned up with CGI, but it's still gratuitously satisfying) to downright corny (poorly executed blue matte sequences during a foot race on top of an elevated transit system.) These problems don't get in the way of fun though. WANTED is a great summer blockbuster.