Demands A High Amount of Belief Suspension With Little Pay Off

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2008)

Wanted is the action movie that requires you to believe that the most ridiculous things can happen without much explanation at all as to how or why they happen. You just have to believe it. Now when a movie asks you to just go out on a limb and believe the unbelievable it is obligated to give you pay off for all the effort you put into it. Wanted doesn't do this.
Most of the action is completely implausible and the storyline has enough plot holes to leave some scratching their heads and the ending of the train sequence is just completely ridiculous. I think one scene that really stood out to me as being stupid is the one where the main character, a loser turned assassin by blood and training, gets an assignment from the loom to kill a guy in the limo. He shoots at the guy through the window and misses. So he then has to flip up over the guy and shoots him through his open sun roof. My thoughts are if they guy is getting shot at he would have closed the sun roof. That was clearly done for the action shot of him flipping the car over the roof. The unnecessary stuff like that and the excessive use of slow motion can make this movie seem burdensome at times.
I also found the main character incredibly talkative and annoying through out most of his training. I found it hard to root for him or connect with him. To my shock (because I am no fan) I think the best character in this film was actually Angelina Jolie's Fox. Her last action in the movie is I think one of the coolest I have seen in a bit. Morgan Freeman does what he always does and the rest of the cast is pretty much forgettable.
And it's not that it doesn't have entertaining moments, because it does but it just never makes up for what it asks of you even in the end. And this is why I wish I had waited to rent the movie.