canceling the laws of physics and morality

Rating: 5/10 (17 August 2008)

I was expecting the American debut of director Timur Bekmambetov, the man who made the Night watch series, a fascinating and catching vampires meets Bulgakov film in the decadent post-Communist Russia. The result is quite disappointing, but no usual stuff either.
You can watch 'Wanted' and enjoy it if you forget for the duration of the film both laws of physics and rules of morality. The story is of a secret society of assassins, working according to a code of rules and instructions received from no other than Fate itself. Killing is presented and I would not say say justified, but no question is asked about who writes the rules and what is the collateral damage of the actions of the society, in a film where more than half of the screen time is spent in motorized killing rampage. The annihilation of the laws of physics is of course another accepted feature of the comics genre, the effects are well done, remind to some extent Matrix without the astonishing visuals of the brothers Wachowski, while the innovations (curved trajectory bullet, a recovery bath that looks like some kind of a cement mold, etc.) seemed to me to be somehow naive.
WHat about the movie itself? The dark cinematography was consistent, but the unidentified American metropolis looks less intriguing than the Moscow the director left behind. Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie do what they are expected. James McAvoy makes here another 'landed-in-a-foreign-world' type of role, same as he did in 'The Last King of Scotland' and ends by being the most incredible serial killer we are in danger to see again if this film is only the start of a series.