Solid Action But Stock Characters and Story

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2008)

Based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar, WANTED is the latest in the long line of the summer onslaught movies based on comic books. But this isn't a movie for the whole family, it's more of like an adult version of JUMPER, which premiered a few months earlier and the simplistic plot is very close to its predecessor.
Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a nobody- he works as a cubicle drone in a huge, nameless company, his only friend there happens to be having an affair with his girlfriend and his corpulent boss abuses him every chance she can get. No sooner are we introduced to him do we then get into a series of slam-bang action sequences as Wes learns that he is a son of a former high ranking member of a secret order of assassins and is endowed with special gifts: the ability to pump his heart rate faster than normal (which allows him to see everything in slow motion and with a faster response time) and has the ability to make precise shots with pistols by somehow bending the laws of physics that allow bullets to shoot behind obstacles to find their target. Wes is soon joined by his mentor, the deadly assassin Fox (Angelina Jolie) and head man Sloan (Morgan Freeman) who trains him in order to go after a renegade of their order (Thomas Kretschmann) but as the story unfolds, all is not what it seems
The action sequences are very much MATRIX-like, with slow motion photography that makes each explosion seem like a work of art. Every headshot is graphically shown as each perfectly shot bullet goes through skulls which is why I wouldn't recommend this movie for young kids even though it's supposed to be a comic-book summer blockbuster. With Timur Bekmambetov's expert direction (he was the one who did the NIGHT WATCH series which turned into a smash hit in Russia and gained cult recognition in the West), the action scenes are very well done- it seems that foreign directors might actually be better imitators than the locally grown talent when it comes to creating such wild mayhem. Unfortunately, most of the characters are stock derived and with a movie that focuses on the action, there is very little character development. McAvoy has an acting range that is more versatile than other action stars in his generation (Vin Diesel and the Rock basically play themselves while Orlando Bloom and Hayden Christiansen are absolute bores) but he doesn't have much to do other than to scream when he gets beaten up (and he does get beaten up a lot to the point of sadomasochism in this film) but there may be hope in that he can blossom much further- although being short and wide eyed tends to go against the action hero mold. My problem is that I could not gain any sympathy for his character (other than the underdog symbolism) due to the fact that he was a nobody to begin with.
Angelina Jolie is probably the closest character with any sort of background in the film but it tends to get overshadowed by her TOMB RAIDER style of acting and her character seems to have a minor role in the entire story- I would have loved to see the movie focused on her character rather than McAvoy's. Morgan Freeman and Terence Stamp (who plays as a mysterious counterpart to Freeman's character) are both wasted since they get very little to do or say.
All in all, I would rate this a 6 out of 10- good solid action sequences but the lack of likable characters is a serious drawback.