style over substance. not exactly a triumph, but it's over it

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2008)

Timur Bekmambetov's first American film isn't that far removed from the kinetic, hyperactive and sometimes just plain f***ing batty movies Night Watch and Day Watch. It's about the "Fraternity of Assassins", who get their missions from clues hidden in a giant quilt, I guess, and it's also about Wesley (James McAvoy), a regular white-collar worker, and his strange, dark adventure of self-discovery in this fraternity of who he really is- an instinctual, almost-mutant killing machine, meant for revenge by his mentor Morgan Freeman (who, thankfully, is a villain for once in a great while).
What is there to say about this then.... well, it's never boring. At least as far as I could tell I never did nod off. That being said, it makes last year's Shoot em Up look like a documentary in comparison. And this isn't necessarily a good thing; a movie might be totally crazy with the over-the-top manners of killing people (in this one we get bullets that curve, bullets that hit one another, heart rates reaching 400 BPS, and rats who bomb the joint, reminding one of the armed penguins in Batman Returns), but does it make it a really good movie?
Not in this case I'm afraid. This is a shame since James McAvoy is a very good actor, one who's very convincing, funny, and believable even when put in the most unbelievable circumstances. He practically carries the first third of the film on his own, this despite him being put in a totally crazy car chase that continues some of the ready-to-break rules set up here by Bekmambetov. And there's even some good star power with Jolie, acting like BIG ACTION STAR Angelina Jolie, and Freeman in a part too easily readable for his own good. But by the end we're given a plot and choice in technical style that knocks off Matrix, Fight Club, La Femme Nikita, a slew of John Woo movies, two turtle doves and a pear tree un-partriaged, and the last quarter of the film is just escalating, laugh-out-loud madness that skids the line between suspenseful and totally ludicrous, and eventually falls over the latter side.
Would I recommend Wanted? No, I wouldn't, at least if you're paying for yourself. But if you're invited, go along and take a chance. You'll leave a little shell-shocked, but you might not be totally sorry you went. Well, might.