WANTED: The Matrix with a great sense of humor.

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2008)

I am a huge fan of Mark Millar's Wanted. And so, when I entered the theater with a friend on an advance screening pass (comic book store owners are very nice people to befriend), fear gripped me. It HAS to suck...right? It's Hollywood...and a "loose" adaptation...
And so, once the credits rolled, and I was one of the many people laughing and clapping, the fear had long passed.
The films works. It provides the amazing opiate of style and dark humor, and in such massive quantities that both evoke the spirit of the source material and utterly ignore the latter 90% of the graphic novel. But that independent streak works for Wanted. You feel a sense of amused wonder and curiosity throughout, and all the plot twists that follow are different enough from the source to actually hold your attention without ever being prematurely obvious.
James McAvoy does an excellent job, and his wry, sarcastic narration sets the mood of the film perfectly. His evolution from pansy to Neo has a genuine and pleasantly arrogant feel to it, although the stereotypical Rocky-esquire training montage is used to speed things up a bit (what a tiresome tool). Basically, his version of a cinematic Neo is both smarter, more entertaining, and more intelligent.
Backing him up, more with sexy looks and an "I'm too cool for you; you're not Brad" attitude than anything, is Angelina Jolie. Her character screams Trinity. And loudly. Regardless, watching her on-screen is a pleasure. She's terribly likable, and extremely lethal throughout.
Morgan Freeman's Morpheus, called Sloan here, is played well, although the role is a bit beneath his skill as an actor. He makes it work though, playing the wizened and mature helper very well. More importantly, he delivers an excellent (and unexpected) line that rivals Samuel L. Jackson's memorable expression from Snakes on a Plane. That alone makes any price of admission worthwhile.
Any other character serves as nothing more than white noise, there to populate the world rather than intrigue.
The theme of Wanted is all about taking charge of your life and making your own choices, something that the very premise of the first hour of the film both adheres to and contradicts. Rather than analyze it here (and waste time arguing the pleasantly mad logic of a movie where bullets bend stylishly), I'll leave that to the people who inevitably will, assuming the bullet-fu and gore don't completely captivate them (and they should). Wanted IS violent, truly, and yet it doesn't strive to turn every frame into a gory, action-packed orgasm. The film handles it with grace and a style I sorely wish more action movies took into consideration.
As bullets curve, heads get punctured, hilarity ensues, and rats explode (peanut butter rocks, BTW), you'll smile besides yourself.
This really isn't a superhero comic adaptation...it's The Matrix with a great sense of humor.
Enjoy it.