Wanted

Plot synopsis:
A young man named Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) works at a dead-end job with an overbearing boss. He takes anti-depressants when he feels stressed out. His live-in girlfriend is sleeping with his best friend. He speaks of how his father left when he was just one week old. He wonders if maybe when he was born his father looked into his eyes and saw a failure.Elsewhere, a man called "Mr. X" (David O'Hara) meets with a ballistics expert to find out who made a particular bullet for a "competitor". She observes that the bullet is "clean", i.e., not traceable to a particular gun. (As becomes clear later, this is because it is the last stage of a multi-stage bullet.) Suddenly, a sniper shoots the ballistics expert in the head from a nearby building. Mr. X leaps through the window and shoots his opponents in mid-flight, killing them. He lands on the building and begins talking to a man on a cell phone, unaware that he is standing on a marked spot. He notices it as the man, named Cross fires a multi-stage bullet from across town, killing Mr. X by going through the back of his head and out through his forehead (the flight of the bullet is shown in slow-motion, backward).One night at a pharmacy, Gibson meets a mysterious woman who tells him his father was an elite assassin who had been killed the day before. Gibson replies that his father abandoned him a week after his birth. At that moment, Cross appears, gun in hand. The woman opens fire on Cross. Gibson and the woman escape from the resulting shoot-out and have a wild car chase in the streets of Chicago. The woman brings Gibson to the headquarters of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins. The group's leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), formally introduces Gibson to Fox (Angelina Jolie), the woman from the night before, and invites him to follow in his father's footsteps as an assassin. Sloan tests Gibson by making him shoot the wings off a fly. When Gibson refuses, a gun is put to his head, triggering a panic attack. Gibson somehow manages to shoot the wings off several flies. Sloan says that he was able to do that because his heart beats 400 times a second when he's stressed. When Sloan asks him whether he want to know how to control it, he runs away in fear. Gibson wakes up the next day hoping everything was a dream, but discovers his father's gun (which he stashes in the toilet tank), and that he has $3.6 million in his bank account. At work, Gibson tells off his boss, bashes his duplicitous friend with a computer keyboard (forming the words "FUCK YOU" with the f, u, c, k, y, o letters and a tooth that pops out of his friend's mouth), and storms out. Gibson then sees pictures of himself and Fox on the front page of several newspapers as wanted fugitives for the pharmacy shooting. Then he notices Fox, who has been waiting outside, and she gives him a ride back to the Fraternity headquarters - an unassuming textile mill.Sometime later when his training is complete, Gibson is given orders to kill people from the Loom of Fate, a loom that gives the names of the targets through a binary code hidden in weaving errors of the fabric. While on his first assignment, Gibson has second thoughts and hesitates killing his target. In a flashback we learn that he told Fox it isn't right to kill people without knowing anything about them or why they deserve to die. Fox then relates a childhood story, about a judge handling a sensitive case, and the defendant had ordered him assassinated. A hired killer held the young girl at knifepoint as they waited for her father to return home. The killer then set fire to the father as the young girl watched, and then branded his initials into her neck. Fox explained that the man who killed the judge had been targeted by the Fraternity several weeks prior to the events of the story, but their assassin had failed to carry out his duty. Fox then tells Gibson The Fraternity's idea, "Kill one and maybe save thousands". As she prepares to leave, he notices initials branded on her neck and realizes the story was about her. Back to present we see Gibson bends a bullet trajectory to kill the target a moment after this recollection.Whenever Sloan orders Gibson to kill a person, Gibson would ask whether the target is Cross as he cannot wait to have revenge. At one time, Sloan grants his wish as the next target is Cross. Fox feels that it is too early but Sloan gives her another order where the target is Gibson.Gibson and Fox travel to the Fraternity's original base of operations in Europe. The two easily capture Pekwarsky and force him to take them to Cross. The meeting leads to a confrontation between Gibson and Cross on a moving train. Fox steals a car and crashes it into the train, eventually causing the train to derail when it reaches a bridge over a deep ravine (killing all innocent passengers). Gibson is about to fall into the ravine before Cross catches his hand, saving his life. Gibson unhesitatingly shoots him. Before Cross dies, he tells Gibson that he is his real father and that the Fraternity had been lying to him. Fox confirms the truth and explains that Gibson was recruited because he was the only person that Cross wouldn't kill. Fox then tells Gibson about the kill order on him and raises her weapon to shoot him. Gibson, however, shoots the glass underneath him and plunges into the river below.Gibson awakes in an apartment across the street from his former apartment. He finds Pekwarsky there. Upon inspecting the apartment, he discovers it belonged to his father, who had been monitoring him his whole life. Pekwarsky hands Gibson a loom weaving and tells him to decode it. Gibson is shocked to discover Sloan's name in the weaving. Pekwarsky explains that after Sloan discovered that he was the next target stated by the Loom of Fate, he started manufacturing his own targets and after discovering this Cross goes rogue and Sloan turns the Fraternity against him. Since then Sloan has used false kill orders to direct the Fraternity as mere contract killers. Gibson realizes that Cross had never actually tried to kill him in their previous confrontations; he had been assassinating Fraternity members to keep them away from Gibson. Pekwarsky departs after giving Gibson plane tickets, stating that his father wished him a life free of violence. While exploring the apartment further, Gibson discovers a secret room containing all of his father's weapons and maps. He even finds a supply of the Exterminator's mini-bombs, realizing that the Exterminator had been working with his father. Gibson then devises a plan to take out Sloan and the Fraternity. Upon entering Sloan's office, he finds himself surrounded by Fox and her fellow master assassins. Gibson tells them that Sloan is killing for profit by providing his killers with fraudulent kill orders. He then attempts to kill Sloan, but is disarmed by Fox.Fox asks Sloan if this is true. Sloan then reveals that all of their names had come up in the weaving, and that he had merely acted to protect them. He then goes on to explain that if they truly believe in the code then they should take their lives right where they stand. Otherwise, they should kill Gibson. The other assassins decide to kill Gibson, but Fox turns on her fellow assassins. She "curves" a bullet to kill the assassins who had been standing in a circle, then throws her gun to Gibson before stepping back into the bullet's trajectory. Sloan escapes. Gibson, penniless once more, does not know what to do with himself. While Gibson provides a voice-over, the audience sees a young man sitting in front of a computer in a cubicle much like Gibson did at the beginning of the film. The man types the name "Wesley Gibson" into Google and searches for it but does not have any results, as in the beginning of the film. Sloan appears and points a gun at the man's head. At that moment, the man turns around and is revealed to be a decoy and looks down. Sloan also looks down and realizes he is standing on a marked spot. He then looks up and says, "Oh, fuck", before Gibson, who is actually miles away, shoots him in the head from the comfort of his own apartment, from the same window his father killed Mr. X at the beginning of the movie. It is also shown that the same bullet passed through an energy drink his former best friend was holding as his unfaithful girlfriend looks on in shock, and passed through a donut his former boss was about to eat mere moments before it killed Sloan.The movie ends with Gibson breaking the fourth wall, addressing the audience and giving an overview of his last six weeks as an assassin saying, "This is me taking back control of my life. What the fuck have you done lately?"

Tags: murder, cult, violence, plot twist, flashback, psychedelic, action, revenge

Review:
It's got plenty of violence and stylized action with a dose of sexuality and a decent plot...Wesley Gibson is a miserable account manager with a dead-end life until he is approached by the beautiful Fox, who informs him that his father was a master assassin who had been murdered days before.
The reason for that is all those negative comments.People don't like the idea of a man making a giant leap across buildings, about the "plot of the world" and the ridicule in the movie.But at the same time I guess they DID like Trinity's jump in Matrix, destiny (sadame) in any Japanese movie or comedy of Mr and Mrs Smith.COME ON PEOPLE!
For the first half hour Wanted felt like a trailer.Adapted from a graphic novel the film never seems to settle,the actors seem ill at ease with the material and the impatience on the directors part leaves us with a messy hackneyed film of action set pieces and sci fi mumbo jumbo inbetween.
The film tries far too hard to be cool which is a shame because im sure it could have been a better film if things would have just been done with a little less haste.James McAvoy,so convincing in Last King Of Scotland is hard to like in this role.Morgan Freeman seems totally non interested but to be fair hes given virtually nothing to do and just serves as filler between action scenes.Angelina Jolie is the real star of this film,she has astounding presence as an actress and suits the action genre,its just a shame we cant find a truly memorable action film for her to star in.In summary Wanted is a fast paced but legless action film that promises much but delivers very little.It leaves you wanting..
I like the fact that some of the characters are played by different actors than your normal action movie types, though to be honest I am not sure about McAvoy's American accent, though he handles everything else well.
James McAvoy (Wesley) brings a dorky, dark humor to the movie, Angelina Jolie brings a cocky, bad ass tone, and Morgan Freeman, well, what movie isn't he perfect in.
Which suited me just fine.The only gripe I can have with this movie is that near the end there were bits that seemed predictable, not the whole thing ...but little parts here or there.Timur Bekmambetov did an amazing job directing this, and I am looking forward to more product from him in the future..
Unlike Crank, or Shoot'em up however it can't find a post modern humor to it, it just plays the action too straight and too improbable, and the word that spring to mind is bathos.However, philosophy is great only if really tight and not pop dollops of pseudo meaning - there is not enough explanation, it's all very mysterious, but simply not mystic enough.I would have liked less bullets and knives and more creativity in the action scenes - and finally at the end of the day the film can't cram in all we need to know in the time continuum provided.Good, if violent, entertainment, but a good film...
That said, I can only say that it's good, not great.James McAvoy, who I've been a fan of since "Rory O'Shea Was Here", does an acceptable job as the movie's main character.
And Common, a guy who has more on screen gravitas than most actors, is sadly underused.The action scenes, which are vital for a film like this are very good.
Based on a six-issue comic series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, Wanted provides the appropriate thrills, action and engagement needed for a strong summer movie extravaganza.Wanted focuses on Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a nobody in a minor, dead-end job with an overbearing boss and a best friend who is getting horizontal with Wesley's girlfriend during lunch breaks.
Sloan informs Wesley that he has the same potential to be a superb assassin as his father, and thus leads to Wesley standing up to his boss, his girlfriend, his friend and beginning his training to become a member of the Fraternity.Wanted exudes much of the same energy as The Matrix, as well as sharing a similar visual flair, without necessarily ripping off the former film.
The film is also helped along by some very strong visual effects that blend rather seamlessly with the surrounding live-action material.Wanted, much like the early summer success Iron Man, also understands that to really get into a story, we have to be involved in the characters, and with Wanted, our entry point is Wesley.
By letting us feel sympathy for Wesley, we have a rooting interest in what happens later, and therefore are involved in the film's action.James McAvoy gives us a vulnerable character in the form of Wesley at the beginning of Wanted, who then transforms into an assassin, but we never lose our identification with him.
A few punches in the face and some exercise and you will be James Bond perfect because your absentee father was and we all know DNA is much more important than practice or discipline.This movie gets all of its charm from the conceit that we know it is all part of the Matrix era bullet time slickness of action and the understanding that it all comes from a comic book anyway so if you have to pick someone up all you have to do is skid sideways right into the person at high speed with the door open and scoop 'em up.
And there can never be too many times two evenly matched assassins demonstrate the fact by their bullets crashing into each other harmlessly in mid flight.Angelina Jolie has said that sure she is carrying guns in this movie but she condones what happens to the characters so she could get behind the movie.
Yes the storyline and action is OTT that's the point of the story, we lead sad, depressing boring lives most of the time and we would kill for a chance to do something amazing, anyone who likes over thought, over talked movies probs should give this a miss, it is a proper popcorn movie which , if you are like me will want to see it all over again.
Yes, siree, I can!The film starts with a Matrix like scene, continues with the average man learning he is extraordinary, then switches to the group of highly trained assassins that only take "good" missions assigned to them by "fate" and continues to ridiculous gun scenes, one in which a bullet has a circular trajectory and kills everyone including the shooter.
"Wanted" is a mixture of these three great movies and HITS AS HARD AS THESE if not more.The movie is thrilling, action-packed, great cinematography, highly interesting and unpredictable story with many twists, great acting, strong message in the end, inspiring ...
A life totally different from the one he is living now: the life of an assassin.When I saw the trailers for this film I was thinking it was going to be a brainless action film with lots of collateral damage, a flimsy story and some nice looking scenery, but overall a good sense of amusement.
The story has a good cast, with names like Terence Stamp, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie; a very high-budget; and is full of action.
Apart from director Timur Bekmambetov's similarly hyperkinetic Nightwatch series, the film plunders from works as diverse as Fight Club's satirical critique of the soulless corporate world, complete with a nihilistic Norton style voice-over, to The Matrix's immersion into a new world (Jolie and Freeman's characters scream parallels to Trinity and Morpheus) and hyper-stylized, adrenaline pumping action sequences.
The recurring theme of the emasculated man "finding himself" through violence veers into uncertain ethical territory even for an unabashed action film, and the numerous staggering gaps in logic (the exploding rats were just too much), gargantuan plot holes and underdeveloped concepts (a bit of exposition on the assassin cult's mystical abilities, especially the much hyped "curving bullets" would have done wonders) strain credibility several shades too far, even where next to none was expected in the first place.
The genius unorthodox casting of James McAvoy proves the spark of life which keeps the film afloat, his substantial charisma, perfect comic delivery and entirely credible shift from timid corporate drone to hardboiled action hero making for a supremely engaging lead.
If you have been waiting for Angelina Jolie to come out with a new action packed movie this is.
Other times, as in this instance, I find just one thing: garbage, as we Americans say.This is pure garbage, sad to say, despite the "stylish" action scenes, which are somewhat of a ripoff from the Matrix movies where the film-makers are obsessed over showing slow-motion shots of bullets flying through the air and then smashing into someone's forehead.
Then you hire a star with a spotty commercial track record (did you know Angelina Jolie has been lining up the box-office bomb regularly throughout her career - Sky Captain anyone?) who has given up on even trying to act and partner her up with the latest "British discovery" who turns out to be a poor actor with no discernible charisma (ala Colin Farrell but even blander).Stir the pot, add a humongous ad campaign to fool as many people as possible into seeing this turkey on opening day and you've got Wanted.Think about the great movie that could have been made with all that money!.
I think this is that kind of movie that gives everyone that exitment,to see a movie without a problem.it is present that kind of real action you are looking for.Without mentioning the great performance of actors in this movie.Angelina Jolie will not disapoint you she still got the class.It maybe should give us a little bit more of the story..
problem is, after that, movie just goes down all the way you can imagine - in the end its you actually don't know what to do - laugh at the incredibly weak plot, full of clichés and poorly connected threads, or cry because you know it was a lot of money invested in this piece of junk and still it failed.if you are a fan of special effects - then you might want to see this in a cinema, but if you want some more from a movie - do yourself a favor, wait for a DVD release.
Two scenes in this movie are worth watching, (1) a car chase early in the film, and (2) a pyrotechnic-filled montage towards the very end.
The problem with action flicks, is that for every good Lethal Weapon, Batman, Enter the Dragon, T2, Assassins, and Die Hard, you get 500 utterly god-awful crap-sandwiches like Wanted.
I watched the trailer and went to the theater excepting to see a good action movie filled with great special effects.That's what I got, but this movie is innovating because, the story has actually some really nice twists!
The humor (sort of reminded me of "Shoot 'em Up") has a great timing, and it keeps the main focus on the action and the story.The actors did a real good job, but that's what I was expecting from them.
A nerdy cubicle worker is recruited by ultra sexy Angelina Jolie and becomes a super assassin.Thankfully, this film is saved by doses of humor that make the predictable plot and thin story bearable.James McAvoy is surprisingly good, speaking with a perfect American accent.
Another thing that happens is during shootouts, they prevent themselves from being shot by shooting the bullet that is coming towards them.If you like seeing slow motion close-ups of people being shot in the head, then "Wanted" is the movie for you..
Towards the end, although we know exactly what's going on, the film has lost it's focus just as a film - that is, as a story cinematically told - and we end up not giving a dam'.Finally, there's the acting - the nerd is a wimp, the supporting characters get hammy or wooden, and the actors who actually know what acting is don't have anything much to do here - including Angelina Jolie, who is almost completely wasted (anybody who thinks this movie is 'sexy' obviously hasn't reached puberty).Not a total loss as a dumb action movie - but blockbuster?
I thought Angelina did a great job in her role, the action genre is most definitely for her because she does shine as a kick ass type and not to mention her body was SICK in this movie!
Don't be fooled by the trailer, this is one of the dumbest summer movies to come out in a long time.Take a little Matrix, add a heaping spoonful of Fight Club, take a pinch of Minority Report, and add a ton of very bad acting and pointlessly gratuitous violence and you have "Wanted." It was so ridiculously bad that I was actually embarrassed for the actors, who are great in other films.
The head of the organization, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) has him trained to be like his dad and he progresses well, until an apparent assassination attempt on him draws him to a man named Pekwarsky (Terrence Stamp) who casts a different light on things.Wanted is adapted from a 'graphic novel', as is becoming quite the craze at the moment, and seems to rely more on the flashiness and style of this than anything deeper.
A grown up comic book of a movie, with gratuitous sex, violence and swearing by the bucketload, this truly feels like a big case of style over substance, with a messy, convoluted, possibly over-ambitious plot (that, as others have noted, does bear similarities with The Matrix), with thin characterization and a deadly lack of substance.
I've not heard of director Timur Bekmambetov before, but I bet he had some sort of past as a music video director or something along those lines, because that's the impression his film gives off.Cast wise, a wide range of famous name actors, from Jolie to Freeman, fail to make anything out of such uninspiring and flat characters and when talents like this can't save anything, you know you're in trouble.It's not awful.
But after watching Wanted for what must be the 5th or 6th time now, I suddenly felt like writing something anyway, so here I go.Let me begin by saying, this is one strange film.
This movie gives no excuse or a very very poor one for the insane far fetched insulting stunts.As well as the ridiculous action which is fairly unoriginal and has been seen before and in better quality and context the story line is so bad it looks like the audience is at wimbeldon as they are all shaking their heads in time at the plot?.
http://eattheblinds.blogspot.comI detested the trailers and I'm not a fan of gene-pool lottery winner Angelina Jolie, so one movie I never thought I'd sit down to watch was Timur Bekmambetov's action orgy Wanted.
Once Wanted screams aloud that its a thrill ride, it does something few action films ever have the smarts to do - it winks at the audience.This wink let's us know this isn't the real world, but that this is a movie...and a very silly movie at that.
Wanted is one of the best action movies I've seen for several years.
Wanted will blow you away with its unbelievably slick action sequences and satisfactorily unique story loosely based on a Mark Millar comic.James McAvoy (Atonement, Last King of Scotland) pulls it off as Wesley Gibson, an anxiety-ridden cubicle drone with a boring billings job.
Though I was bit disappointed with Morgan Freeman as he did not have much moments but Wanted is more about actions scenes and special effects.
Like so many modern Hollywood moves "wanted" looks and sounds great but is a poorly conceived and written and is ultimately not a good movie.
From the opening scene you think you are watching something like the "Matrix" but the movie never gets around to explaining how these assassins attain superpowers.
Too many "WTF?" moments in both the action and the plot to enjoy this movie unless you really relate to a frustrated nobody stuck in a dead-end job and you want to fantasize about becoming an assassin.
I was a bit apprehensive about this film from the previews and commercials, what with the bending bullets and all, but I figured with all of the action movies trying to outdo each other...maybe there would be a good story backing it.
Aside from the absurd story backing why the frat was assassinating people, all of the stunts were merely an attempt to outdo movies like crank with time/space bending cg that makes anyone who has any inkling of what physics are want to cry.
The film borrows heavily from things like Bulletproof Monk (I don't actually think there's a single original idea in the whole movie) and viewers are expecting to suspend way too much belief.The film has too much action (yes, you read that right!
Except thats not the case, the man he kills IS his father and the guy in charge of the assassins (Morgan Freeman in possibly his worst movie role ever) has started to create targets for his own profit.The film is truly awful, ignore the plot because it's nonexistent.
In fact, the same sequence from the first bit just happens all over again.It should be called Plot Wanted.Just goes to show, cool looking trailers do not a good film make..
James McAvoy is perfect as Wesley and many other A-list actors manage to appear in this flick, including Angelina Jolie as the sexy Fox and Morgan Freeman as the plotting Sloan.
I liked it a lot, although you have to understand that it's what I call an over-the-top action movie, where everything is taken to the extreme (see "Shoot 'Em Up").
Does Hollywood, or at least the film's writers/director really believe that because someone is at a movie that they are as big of a loser as our little character Wesley here?