Fun, but you've seen it all before

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2011)

Slick but over-stylised action flick from the Russian director behind the NIGHT WATCH movies. Plot-wise, WANTED borrows heavily from both LEON and THE MATRIX in the story of a young, slightly nerdy man working in a dead end office job who finds himself being indoctrinated into a world of assassins and massive, CGI-heavy action sequences. What follows is extremely fast paced, never for a moment realistic, and full of the kinds of unbelievable OTT scenarios that will give even the most hyperactive child a headache. We've got cars rolling through the air, trains dropping through the sky and, in the film's neatest concept, bullets that can actually bend around obstacles.
WANTED is given some decent credibility thanks to the actors who populate the parts. James McAvoy is fine for the most part, apart from a single car chase in which he screams and whines like a girl for the entire duration. Morgan Freeman sleepwalks through his role and Angelina Jolie is given little to do other than pout and snarl on occasion, but other, minor parts are given to effective performers like Thomas Kretschmann and Terence Stamp. The action comes thick and fast and with it a great deal of heavy violence, and on a superficial level the film admittedly works. But the biggest drawback is Bekmambetov, whose excessive style makes the likes of CRANK and GAMER look like sedate Merchant Ivory productions.