Wanted is a sure fire thrill ride starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Film making 21/25
Cinematography 22/25
Audio 23/25
Bonus Features 20/25
Total 86/100
Wanted has a great action star cast with plenty of thrills from beginning to end and one of those twist endings you are sure to find a total enjoyment. While the action is almost nonstop there are some scenes that truly allow you to enjoy the slowed down pace of the filming speed that is.
During your trip through this action thriller you have a not so unique slow motion camera footage that has a unique twist to it to allow you to enjoy what is really going on. James McAvoy is a real action hero that you can believe in and want to see get ahead in life but with the real life physique and even real life boredom you can easily understand.
The story is one you probably have heard before, boring job and terrible whiny boss, no real motivation in life and nothing to do but date your girl and go to work day in and day out. Dad was an elite assassin and now has been killed so you are recruited to seek revenge on his death because you have not only the pure bred talents of your father but the motivation to do things right.
Okay, so maybe the story is not a unique one from the stand point of assassin father but the office worker part is true enough. Many times during Wanted you do find yourself not only cheering for the good guy but loving the things he does in that everyday boring guy becomes hero style.
Wanted is an action film in the style of those classics but with a few twists that can take away from the overall enjoyment and just missing that reach of a great classic action movie. There are some scenes that take a little bit too much of the fiction to its limits and makes the movie more of a comic book super hero type action movie that is still fun.
The premise of the assassins is simple, for more than a thousand years they have been doing the bidding of a weaved tapestry and killing people. This has been an upheld tradition of the clan of weavers due to incidences in the past where they found out afterwards that not doing the actions called out for them results in tragic human lives being killed and murdered.
So the society of weavers called the Fraternity has been following orders from the Loom of Fate and dispatching bad guys for years. While it may be farfetched it does make sense when given the proper personal touch to see the effects of not reading the code in the weave from the Loom of Fate.
Wesley Gibson is the hero, our lonely office worker in a dead end job with a terrible overbearing woman as his boss who he hates. Wesley suffers from anxiety and has all the signs of a boring life you can imagine and even does nothing when he suspects his girlfriend is cheating on him, with his best friend.
Cut to another part of the city and we see a man who guns down a group of assassins as they try to kill him only to be killed in the end when the whole thing was a decoy to get him to stand on an X. The lone assassin dies from a bullet shot miles away from a man, Cross, who uses the others as the decoy and dials a cell phone to get the man to stand in the correct spot for his assassination.
We cut back to our hero/ordinary guy Wesley going about his day and finally ending up at a pharmacy where he is spotted by Fox and by the bad guy Cross. Wesley Gibson is told by Fox, Angelina Jolie, that his father was killed by Cross who is there at the pharmacy.
In a spectacular gun fight and car chase through Chicago Cross and Fox trade shots while Fox keeps Wesley out of harm’s way. After getting away Fox takes Wesley to the headquarters of the Fraternity and introduces him to the leader Sloan played by Morgan Freeman.
Sloan offers him to join the fraternity and shows him why his panic attacks and anxiety are not what they seem; he has a member of the Fraternity put a gun to Wesley’s head and orders him to shoot the wings off of flies. Wesley shoots the wings of the flies and proves that his anxiety attacks are not what they seem but actually his body speeding up to do his bidding.
Sloan explains he is a born killer with the instincts
from his father and offers to avenge his father’s death by killing the rogue assassin Cross. Sloan also tells Wesley he will get his father’s money which Wesley sees the next day in his bank account which is brimming with millions.
Wesley promptly goes to work to use their computers to look up events about his father’s death and his boss scolds him about using company computers for browsing the internet. He screams and yells at her and on his way out slaps a tooth out of his former friend’s mouth with a keyboard for sleeping with his girl friend.
I told you his life was pretty terrible before finding out he was a born assassin, Wesley agrees to join and learn the art of killing. From here we go to the training and how assassins are usually viewed in movies with plenty of teeth jarring fighting and bloody cuts from knife fights.
I won’t ruin any surprises and will let you find out what happens for the rest of the movie on your own, suffice it to say the long fight scene is great with plenty of explosive action. The stop and slow motion scenes are well made and you get a real great look at the awesome effects used in the movie during many of the scenes.
While some of the over the top abilities, curving bullets?, are a bit much to swallow it is fictional and a great action film where you really root for the good guy. The action is almost nonstop and many of the scenes are great with that almost felt hit of knives where you cringe whenever Wesley takes one.
Additional features include the whole gambit of additions including cast and character information from the cast, producer and director. You get the alternate beginning of the movie as well as a look at the major stunts and action scenes of the film as well as the whole U Control and BD Live features of the Blu-Ray movie.
The U Control allows you to record favorite scenes and share them through the BD Live function that uses an internet connected Blu-Ray player like the PlayStation 3. BD Live allows you to see features only available through the internet such as director and producer commentary and live chatting while watching the movie.
Another feature of U Control is being able to watch picture in picture while the movie is playing and view commentary about the scene and other great additions. U Control and BD Live add a lot to the behind the scenes looks into the movie as well as additional content about the cast and characters.
While some of the U Control and BD Live features may not be for everyone the behind the scenes footage with the cast and of the stunt scenes are really great. You also get some looks at creation of the movie from the graphic novel as well as creating the Wanted video game.
There is at least a few hours of additional features on the Blu-Ray version that make it a really sweet deal as well as the high definition viewing for a great action film. Wanted on Blu-Ray is really a great movie that is one of the best action films of the year in my book.
While Wanted did very well at the box office with sales upward of $135 million it should do just as good if not better on DVD and Blu-Ray. Wanted is more than just that romantic ideal of hitting your cheating friend, it’s smacking him across the face with a keyboard and seeing his tooth flying out at slow motion speeds.
