Review of Wanted (2008) by Parker R — 26 Aug 2013

Wanted features Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy in an action-thriller film, the dvd menu is highly visual as it shows scenes from the film but surprisingly there are no special features. There is rock music playing with the film preview on the menu. After watching the first few.

Minutes, I fast-forwarded to the end due to the swearing, sexuality and violence.

Watching this film is not easy, the main character is not very appealing, apparently depressed, in one scene his girlfriend was having sex with his friend (this scene is not even remotely erotic or appealing), and the most interesting scene to this point appears ripped from The Matrix (unless Wanted was filmed first).

The main character reminds me of a depressed, non-heroic, Peter Parker. Angelina's character shows up from out of nowhere even as he is buying medication to tell him about his dad dying then his dad's assassin (actually he is the guy's dad trying to save his son from the group of assassins) shows up and attempts to kill them both and they end up on a fantastic and unbelievable car chase through city streets.

The story arc mildly improves when he is brought into a meeting with other people, shown that he has skills/powers and told of his dad's legacy as an assassin. He leaves and at home he awakes to find a gun on his person. He later finds out that he is wealthy after his dad's assets were transferred to him. He tends to be annoying and talk too much, especially when Jolie's character picks him up.

And brings him to a textile factory.

He gets thrown into training with brutal tests and almost no warning or preparation, fortunately the group has healing baths that are peculiar but effective (reminding me of Ra's Lazarus Pit from Batman's world). It's a shame that this film got made and that Jolie but especially Morgan took part in it as it really seems devoid of a worthwhile story or a heart or moral center with violence for violence's sake. It takes on a psychological bent when the character reveals he was living a lie and that until he knew his father he didn't know himself and now he must be as good or better as his father (as if our father or mother wholly define who we are - bull!)! So, because his dad was an assassin, he must become one too.

Fate is "maligned", rather than God, as being the instructor of whom it is the assassins must kill. The film seems decidedly amoral or immoral, depending on how one looks at it. The twist is that supposedly his dad was trying to save him from Jolie and the group, this being revealed near the film ending. 1/10.