Wanted

Wesley Gibson is a simple office worker tired with his life and past the point of hoping for more. Before you can say "hang on didn't The Matrix do this but better?" Gibson is approached by a woman claiming he is the son of a famed killer with near-supernatural abilities and that he has them too. It takes a few gun battles to make him believe the story, but Gibson is soon under the wing of the Fraternity, a group of super-assassins under the leadership of the shadowy Sloan, who kill based on the thread patterns sown by a magic loom (no, really). Gibson begins training for his ultimate task – taking down the man who killed his father all those years ago.

Wanted was a Friday night rental and I cannot imagine it would work any other time than that. The plot is a mix between The Matrix and a warm turd (guess which side the loom is from) and it just about pulls a basic frame for lots of action, running, shouting, and gun pornography. There is not a point to expecting anything more than this because it offers nothing more, except maybe unintentional laughs at the sheer nonsense of the plot. This was not a particular problem for me in terms of words on paper but the delivery seemed to suggest that I should take it at least a little bit seriously and is a bit po-faced – to the detriment of the film, which really needed to be played for sheer fun.

Because the action is reliant on the plot and characters to draw us in, it cannot save the film but it certainly provides a distraction. The excessive abilities of these humans is another turn off in regards "getting into it" but on the flipside it does provide some action sequences that are so outrageous that it is hard not to enjoy them for the sheer spectacle. Director Bekmambetov is probably a reasonable choice if this is the only aim as he also made that superficial vampire success the other year, but he cannot draw anything from the talented cast nor draw the audience in. I feel a little sorry for James McAvoy as he has solid roles under his belt and was due his "big action film" role, however this shows that when opportunity does knock you should probably answer with the door on the chain just in case. He has a fairly thankless role but throws himself into it well enough within the context of the film. Morgan Freeman dials in his performance but yet it still fits. Jolie has clearly just been told to pout and look sexy as much as possible because that is all she does. Personally I found her skinny frame to be alarmingly unsexy and wondered who she is surrounding herself with that nobody has taken her to side about how bad she looks in this film. The support cast offer little but their familiar faces and are a weird bunch of Stamp, Common, Warren and others.

Wanted is a fairly basic film then but one that has enough money thrown at the action to just about make it appeal to the teenage boy in us all. However it is impossible to ignore just how very daft it all is and how none of it really gets the heart going. Instantly forgettable stuff but if you're looking for something noisy and totally undemanding then this would fit that bill.