Utterly obnoxious from start to end

Rating: 4/10 (26 October 2008)

Let me get this straight I really don't mind dumb action movies. I've enjoyed nearly every super hero movie ever made, I liked Die Hard, Pirates of the Carribbean, Shoot Em Up and a whole lot more. But there is dumb and there is really dumb, and "Wanted" falls it the latter category.
Basically, it's the Matrix on speed, but without anything that made the Matrix such a great movie, i.e. cool characters, a really cool premise, and exciting action sequences. While "Wanted" sure does have its share of action sequences, I would not describe them as exciting. They are very stylized and there are a couple of nice parts, but for the most part you are shaking your head in disbelief at the over-the-top nonsense the creators want you to swallow.
And that's just the action. The story, if you can call it that, is even worse. Basically, the main character is recruited by a super-secret society of assassins, who get their targets by a magical loom that spits out binary code, to kill one of their rogue members. Somehow, he becomes the world's best assassin in a couple of weeks by being beaten up for weeks, an even obtains supernatural time-slowing and levitation powers, after which he proceeds to take out a veritable army of highly trained fellow assassins with no effort whatsoever. There are twists and turns everywhere, but none of it makes any sense.
Then, there's the very obnoxious message. Basically, this movie claims, all normal people are "losers" because they are not fulfilling their potential, which apparently adds up to killing your own father and assassinating random people because a magical machine tells you to.
In fact, not just the message is obnoxious. Everything else is too. There is not a likable character or good joke to be found anywhere in the movie. I like James McAvoy but here's he just annoying, and Angelina Jolie (as usual) is there for the looks only. And why Morgan Freeman resorts to crap like this we will probably never know.
I really don't mind nonsense as long as it's presented as nonsense. But a movie that goes this far over the top and then still tries to be a "serious" and "cool" movie, that's just too much.
Watch the action sequences, and fast forward through the rest.
4/10