CGI effects do not make a great movie

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2008)

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a loser. He hates his job, his boss abuses him verbally, his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend, and he has no money. This is just a short list of the problems that Wesley faces which, thanks to the power of pills, he is able to manage somewhat. His life is a empty shell and he drifts through the days as if he were in a daze.
However, one night everything changes. When a beautiful woman, who is later known as Fox (Angelina Jolie) "saves" him from an assassination attempt, Wesley finds his life turned upside down. It is then that he will learn the true meaning of fate and what it means to be a man.
Sounds good, right? Well, the problem is that once Wanted reaches the point of no return and Wesley discovers who is supposed to be, Wanted then does a very unfortunate thing. Instead of using a good story with interesting characters to drive the movie, Wanted uses the tired idea of having CGI effects to tell the events of Wesley's transformation. Granted, Wanted is a summer movie and one expects such films to be over the top compared to past season movies. The problem though is that this is easily overdone and whatever story once existed is ignored for the sake of explosions and impossible chases.
A another example would be the curving bullet scenes. Ignoring the laws of physics (we are never told how such thing can be done despite hints of a special power that a few have), Wanted relies on effects like this to amaze and to drive certain plot ideas. This is great but the whole movie cannot use this single idea to make the movie worth watching. This is portrayed as the pinnacle of the Franternity members's powers but we don't have enough to go on to believe that.
There is little reason to go into the details of Wanted, and that includes the twist, because there isn't much to tell. This is too bad because there were hints of some interesting ideas like the question of fate and free will. Are we responsible for our actions? Is it moral to kill 1 to save a 1,000 as Fox tells Wesley? And what about this secret order known as the Fraternity? Lead by Sloan (Morgan Freeman) we are not told enough about the origins and working of the Fraternity to really care. How was it formed? We know it trusts a loom for a secret language but how has the group survived for so long without being detected? Once more a good movie would have told us these details instead of focusing only on CGI.
CGI effects do not make a great movie. Wanted, like so many others, is entertaining but not to the level of being remembered years from now.
6/10