Gradually waking up from an erotic action dream.

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2008)

"Wanted" is a decent-made action movie, with a mystery waiting to be unfolded by the audiences, which will essentially lead the movie to be reflective.
Due to my bad habit of making comparisons between a movie and its trailer, I'd like to say it gave me mixed feeling. First of all, my expectation is too high, when I wanted it to be like a top-notch John Woo slow-motion flick. "Wanted" came out like that, but the director is not John Woo after all. Here are the goods and bads about it.
The good: 1, a solid story. Excelled my expectation, Wanted has something to say. It is a great father-son relationship story. At first it arouse up the audiences into the mood of brainless killers, then subsequently cool them down to let them think. The writers are very smart not to ruin the storyline in the gunfires but to develop it into something else. "I want actions to be driven by story, not story driven by actions."Said John Woo some years ago. Wanted is a good example of that.
2, While brains are kept being blown out, the movie kept a balance between a black comedy and a mystery thriller. There is no forced romance, even though Angelina Jolie gave many erotic appearances. Concerning Angelina, she has to be mentioned as she gave a good performance, even with very few lines. The rest of the cast is also good. Morgan Freeman deserved a nod absolutely.
3, The actions. The first third of the movie has enough potential to be another Matrix. But that's also what let me down consequently.
The bad: The second part of the movie is half-narrative, half-action-packed, but the third part finally slowed down. After the breathtaking train scene, the mystery is solved and everyone is waiting for some explosive final shoot-out. But the actions after that are no match for the former parts of the movie. What a pity! It could have been better than Equilibrium, it could have been better than so many action classics if it has a better climax. Maybe it's meant to be anti-climax...
About the message of the movie, I'd like to say it's an ironic encouragement to everyone who is not satisfied with the environment. "Choose your destiny" could be something deceitful, and being a good child of the society could be the luckiest thing for you and me.
7/10 Had some laugh with friends in theater. Enjoyed it.