Wanted: Nearly clichéd but kinda innovative

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2008)

Checklist for (American) summer blockbuster movie listed in order of importance:
1. Hot Chicks 2. Guns 3. Explosions 4. Bada** Heroes 5. Save the World Plot
Wanted follows this formula for summer success quite closely. Seriously, you've seen this movie before if you viewed last year's testosterone-fest 300 or Mr. and Mrs. Smith of a few years ago. Wanted, while very similar to both films (and countless other summer blockbusters) distinguishes itself by presenting its hero as an actual human being. The film is also subject to a rather surprising amount of social critique, but if that's not your interest then you can still see Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy slingin' bullets and jumping on moving trains.
McAvoy plays Wesley Gibson, an epitomized loser. He is an accountant for a cleverly-not-named firm, is harassed by his overweight boss, and has a girlfriend who sleeps with his best friend. He doesn't neglect to remind us of his pathetic life either through constant voice-over narrations. One day, he is picked up by a seductive yet deadly woman called Fox (the best name for a character played by Jolie). After a firefight with an unknown attacker, he is carried to a secret base somewhere in the city. Fox takes him to her leader, Sloan, (played by Morgan Freeman) who tells him of a hidden society called Fraternity which has existed for thousands of years to assassinate villains. Fraternity members use the "Loom of Fate" which contains the names of evil-doers in binary codes of its fabric. Wesley also has personal ties to Fraternity as his father was a member but was murdered by a rogue named Cross (again, such a clever name). Wesley vows revenge and undergoes emasculating and brutal training and eventually learns his father's trade.
Finally, he is ready to avenge his father's death and travels to Europe where the traitor is hiding. However, Fox follows him (as Sloan has given her an order to kill Wesley). They track down Cross who is revealed as Wesley's actual father and Wesley learns that Fraternity has become corrupt (which is why Cross quit the organization). Cross was the unknown attacker from earlier and only wanted to keep Fraternity away from his son. So, when Wesley returns, he goes to the base and kills nearly everyone while looking for Sloan. When he does find Sloan, the aging leader tells him that every Fraternity member's name had appeared in the Loom, so Sloan began treating Fraternity as a hit man organization. With Fox's help, Wesley finishes off the rest of the assassins save Sloan who escapes. In the closing sequence, Sloan goes to Wesley's office to kill him, but is, in turn, killed himself from a bullet which Wesley fires from his father's old apartment.
Given that Angelina Jolie was written into the screenplay, it isn't surprising that many thought the film would suffer from the unneeded addition. Fortunately, it doesn't but Jolie doesn't offer anything fundamental other than her statuesque body. Her character doesn't mature much either, but Fox is ultimately the only Fraternity member who sides with Wesley. Director Timur Bekmambetov also made a good decision and didn't include an unnecessary sex scene. While Fox isn't developed Wesley surely is. His character's meek beginning and his intense training are effective in creating a three dimensional hero. His humble beginnings also allow us to care about his well-being and hope for his success. While by no means acceptable in non-summer months, Wanted has a satisfactory amount of characterization to accompany its mindless action.
Wanted is Timur Bekmambetov's first English-language film too. His cinematographic approach is unique in this film. Most of the action sequences have at least some potion in slow motion but not for dramatic purposes as American filmmakers employ. Bekmambetov's slow motion highlights the trajectory path of a bullet or the movement of vehicle during a chase sequence. The style is similar to Zhang Yimou's slow motion arrows in House of the Flying Daggers. It's effective in piquing our excitement but Bekmambetov overuses it. By the film's end, the slow motion serves to remind us how preposterous the curving bullets and tumbling cars really is. A few traditional fight scenes are included, such as Wesley's fight with one of his old assassin teachers in the kitchen of Fraternity's base but they are too sparsely placed. A few more non-CGI fight scenes would have kept me from feeling ready for the movie to end when I viewed it in cinema.
The film also offers some criticism for audiences who aren't there for its mindless action. In Wanted, Fraternity is a supposedly divine organization which aids humanity by protecting it from evil-doers. This mission statement doesn't survive into the corporate era which can be interpreted several ways. Perhaps Fraternity has never been the beneficial organization it claims to be or perhaps the "malaises of modernity" are as destructive as Charles Taylor argues. As for my personal opinion, I view Fraternity as a visual metaphor for (modern) religious corruption. Wanted is viable for such interpretation because it has a stronger source material (an acclaimed graphic novel) than other summer action films. I've not yet read the graphic novel version, but I have read that the film portrays Fraternity differently than does its source material. Even so, there is still intellectual appeal to the movie, which is its greatest asset.
I'd recommend viewing Wanted in cinema before its theatrical run ends. It has enough gut-wrenching action to satisfy even the most sober of audiences. While the film doesn't directly offer insight into current and historical affairs, it's wide open for interpretation. Some IMDb posters have already offered such criticism. But by the end, you'll probably be happy to see the blank screen. Final Consensus: *** out of ****