Read the Graphic Novel Instead

Rating: 1/10 (16 July 2008)

Look, I know that most big summer blockbusters go light on the plot and heavy on the slick special effects, but 'Wanted' didn't really have either. Every review I read raves about the action sequences, but I'd seen it all before. Seemingly the only special effect that they use over and over is the curving bullets thing, where our assassins can someone get bullets to travel in arcs instead of straight lines. When this happens, the camera artfully pans around a CGI bullet as it slices through the air in slow motion. How revolutionary! I mean, the only other time I've seen a camera pan around an object frozen in time was in The Matrix...and every movie, video game, TV show, and commercial made since the Matrix came out, A F*CKING DECADE AGO! And as for the plot, I won't drop any spoilers, but if you have more than three functioning brain cells you'll start seeing obvious plot holes about 20 minutes in and continue to see them right up to the film's unsatisfying conclusion. I don't like to be the "The Book Was Better" guy, but in this case I'll make an exception. You can tell that the screenwriter read up to about page 30, then decided that a secret society of assassins with the most useless super power imaginable would be a lot better than an action-packed, yet highly introspective look at the corruptibility of man, the nature of freedom, and what happens if the bad guys actually win.