It's got Jolie and guns - what else ya need

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2014)

In 2008's Wanted, James McAvoy plays an anxious computer jockey, taken advantage of by all who know him, who discovers not only that his long-lost dad has been murdered and that said dad was actually an elite assassin but also that he himself has super-spy skills and must be trained to harness them. And one of his fellow assassins is Angelina Jolie. So it's basically a fantasy aimed at shlubby white males.
McAvoy's Wesley is an office drone who takes medication for his anxiety and is bullied by his abusive stapler-clicking boss and whose buddy (played by Chris Pratt) has been boinking Wesley's harpy girlfriend. He lives in an apartment alongside an elevated railroad. His life sucks. So you can imaging his surprise when he's confronted by a mysterious woman named Fox (Jolie) while getting his prescription filled. A man has tracked him to the drugstore, she purrs, and he's about to kill you. A shootout ensues. Fox and Wesley escape, and he's brought to a textile factory to meet the suave Mr. Sloan, who gives Wesley the lowdown on his origins (every hero needs one) and gives him a motive – to find and assassinate the man who murdered his father.
But before that can happen, we must endure a training montage. Wesley learns how to fight with knives – and gets plenty of slices of his own. Wesley learns how to take a punch while being tied to a chair. Wesley learns how to fire a gun so that the bullet curves around obstacles. You know, standard-issue stuff. And then he's ready! Wait, no he's not. Sloan makes him do some killin' missions. You know, to keep up appearances with the other assassins. The basic idea is that the looms in the textile factory contain coded messages that, when decoded, provide the name of the assassin group's next target.
The story is based on a comic book, or graphic novel, whichever is appropriate, so suspension of disbelief is paramount. Take the idea behind curving bullets. Or that Wesley can suddenly get ripped and become great at hand-to-hand fighting. Or that there's a magical soaking tub that heals everything from scratches to broken bones. Gotta just buy into it. Fail to do so at your own peril, is what I'm getting at here.
Anyway, I liked the movie. A lot of exhilarating action, and then there's Jolie. Hardly says a word for the first hour of the movie. Easy work if you can get it. Come to think of it, she doesn't say much in the movie, and I'm betting a stunt double helped in some of the action scenes. Now that's a good career choice.
Wanted was as outlandishly high energy as one might expect, so I'd recommend it for action movie fans, or comic-book fans, and especially Jolie fans.