Boring & Cheesy Action Flick...

Rating: 2/10 (13 July 2008)

...with one or two decent scenes of action, until it tips the action maybe a few steps over the edge of acceptable. Thats what you get in this movie.
I went to see this on a free ticket thingy with one of my best mates on a wet and windy day, thing was, I honestly had no idea what to expect. Thats really my own fault, but hey, free tickets, can't complain right? OK, the story is this, and try not to laugh as you read on: James McAvoy plays big time loser, Wesley Gibson. An office worker with a "heart condition", stressed, being cheated on by his best mate sleeping with his girlfriend and generally, just being a nobody. Enter anorexic Angelina Jolie (Fox) with awful tattoo's up and down her body. She tells Wesley that his father was assassinated on a roof top, and that he was apart of a secret fraternity of assassins that had been around for 1000 years, called....wait for it: "The Fraternity" ! How original. Wesley is taken to this "fraternity", where he discovers his true identity and his destiny to be a big time assassin.
Now this is the best part. Morgan Freeman plays Sloan, aka: Morpheus MK II, and takes Wesley under his guidance, where he is beaten black and blue, stabbed to hell with butchers knives and undertaken on many more obscene torture sessions, to become the best assassin on the planet. He obtains his "targets" by a pile of granny's knitting (aka, a gigantic loom thread) where there are binary codes hidden in the stitching. Binary code in stitching...yes...binary hidden in string.
Okay - so thats all laughable - it gets worse though.
From the offset of this films opening scene, it just reminded me of "The Matrix". Straight out, nothing else. Not "Wanted", but a poor man's Matrix. That is all this film is. Poor mans Matrix. You'll be kidding yourself if you actually enjoy any segment of this film, as its mostly loaded with "yet-more-slow-mo-scene" moments, which look poorly made, and god damn cheesy. I won't spoil the party piece though...actually I will. Its when Morgan Freeman says "mother f**ker" right at the end of this 2 hour nonsense. Thats really the only reason why I was generous giving this 4 stars out of 10. I have to give the film some credit though, it DOES have one or two good scenes, but lets be honest, curving bullets, binary codes hidden in loom threads, a predictable plot, and ridiculous long shots where bullets seem to deny the barriers of gravity going through donut hoops, windows, energy drinks and finally hitting someone through the head on a 10 storey building - isn't my idea of a "great" action movie. I can't honestly remember a great action film I have seen in the last year, apart from Die Hard 4.
Save time by avoiding this film at all costs, just beware that the 7.5 out of 10 is really misleading. Actually read some of the comments before you go venturing off into the wilderness!