I was fully prepared to leave Wanted feeling as giddy as a school boy. The previews and teasers looked fantastic and, even though I’m a huge fan of the comic book mini-series, I was at peace with the comic book-y elements being removed from the storyline. I felt I had fully and completely prepared myself to enjoy this movie for the balls-to-the-wall action extravaganza with brains it promised to be. And did you see the cast list? Recipe for awesomeness indeed! So, why did I leave the film feeling I’d been let down? Let’s review, shall we?
First, let me say there are things that about this film I really like. The loom, that weaves into it’s tapestries a code in binary that translates into a name of someone who needs to be killed for the greater good is pretty neat. James McAvoy’s performance as Wesley Gibson as he goes from cubical slave to uber-assassin is very fun to watch, as is Morgan Freeman as Sloan, leader of the Fraternity of assassins. Both McAvoy and Freeman do really terrific jobs as well rounded characters. The trouble is, the rest of the cast either has nothing to do or looks as if they’d rather be doing something else. Angelina Jolie spends most of time trying to look cool (her strange cheekbones and ultra-thin look kill any possibility of sexy) and really doesn’t look at all interested in being in this film. Common essentially looks like he’s just there to pose for an album cover for his latest record. Everyone else just provides background scenery. And the usually great Terence Stamp seems to basically be dropped in here so that the film makers can say “Hey kids, look! It’s General Zod!” The one and only reason for his character being in the film is to provide a crucial piece of information at just the right dramatic moment and that’s it. Truly a waste.
Wanted is also the second film in as many weeks that I felt fell apart due to the steroidal CGI effects and action sequences. I understand these guys are supposed to be experts and near super-human at what they do, but most of the time it really just looked ridiculous and gratuitous. They apparently had a huge effects budget and, by god, they were very intent on showing us every penny. And the sequence where Wesley shows up to take out the Fraternity is essentially played like a video game. He takes out all the grunts on the first level and then hits a boss on each level as he moves up. Don’t get me started about the curving bullets thing. Every time that showed up (or was showed off), it might as well have had a bright glowing neon sign that screamed “we really want you to pay attention to this as it will be the big payoff of the whole frigging movie!” Anything done to death like that, you just know it’s going to wind up as the goddam resolution to the plot and you dread it right up until it happens and then just get angry about it afterwards.
So, yeah, to sum things up, the first quarter of the film and the last five minutes live up to the spirit of the comic and are parts of a really good film in their own right. The rest of it is just a special effects show-off reel that happened to have a multi-million dollar budget. With that kind of cash at their disposal I am pretty perplexed as to why they couldn’t have toned down the crazy action sequences and returned the super-villain/super-hero aspect of the story that was the heart of the comic book. I really wanted to like Wanted, but left the theater feeling angry at watching a lot of lost potential. Don’t spend full price to see this in the theater, either catch a matinée or, better yet, wait the three months to rent it on DVD.
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