The following review contains very minor spoilers.
Not unlike applying an exact birth date to new slang, it’s difficult to gauge whether director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch) has invented a new language for the modern action film with Wanted. We’ve reached a point where today’s actioners are required to wear moon shoes—films like Wanted and Crank aspire to both hat-tip and one-up the Wachowski brothers’ hyperactive stylings (sans the techno white dreadlocks and Columbine coats), all the while hopping on and off the latest trends in video games, technology and comic book movies like coked-out mosquitoes.
Of course, Wanted itself is based on a comic book miniseries by Mark Millar—some fanboys would say the film merely uses the comics for TP—but the movie feels like a cultural genre gangbang where basic movie logic not only no longer applies, it’s laughed at under a calm hipster veneer for being old school.
Wanted takes the “enlightened chosen one” storyline of Unbreakable, ditches most of the ethic recoil, remolds the central hero as a sleepy, tech-literate 20something (note: resembling today’s bloggers) and posits him in a Grand Theft Auto urban fantasia with endless ammo, life, freedom and a doting, hushed Angelina Jolie at his side. Before he learns the way of the gun/Jolie, our aforementioned hero, Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy (Atonement), drifts though a cubicle-strewn life and can’t bother caring that his GF is getting dogged by his BFF on his IKEA table (shades of Fight Club) on the regular. But that’s before Gibson finds out that he can bend bullets (how trendy!); he’s also one of the world’s elite natural born killer-slash-assassins. The movie’s two lessons: 1) not trying too hard is vital to coming off cool and 2) hot doting girls are that much hotter when they rarely speak.
What many viewers will find equally charming and lazy about the flick is how completely over-it it is in terms of making sense. When our mortal (super)hero should be smushed into liquid bits after being caught in the nightmarish destruction of a train, he’s merely stirred. Of course Gibson can’t die in this scenario, the superhero in a movie never does. But Wanted defenestrates any and all rule-books when it comes to placing an action hero in genuine jeopardy. Jeopardy is overrated according to this film, even for a mortal assassin partying in fantasy land. And you’ll like it!
When John McClane cut up his feet in Die Hard and puffed on a final cig as he told Al to get a message to his kids and wife, you knew he wouldn’t die, but damn, it looked like his was felled. That was the standard action hero protocol for years. Here, when Gibson smashes his body atop a train hard enough to kill him on impact, he merely wakes up to find himself inexplicably soaking in a magical bath tub, already back to 98% health. These numerous sauna recoveries serve as geek intermissions between the film’s grandiose stunts. They’re a locker room of sorts for a weightless blockbuster. And when they’re over, Gibson and his newfound Fraternity of killers quickly go back to: shooting people, knifing and being knifed, practicing kills on elderly corpses, blowing up rats, and having a blast. And then bathing some more.
This is the R-rated, vicarious, hedonistic action film of summer 2008. It’s ultimately too pleased with its laissez-faire M.O.—that’s why the rah-rah Ferris Bueller-ish ending is fitting and yet underwhelming BS—but the lavish budget, high production values and the director’s cavalier disposal of genre tropes win out against better judgment, sort of like R. Kelly in court. Bekmambetov proposes that Americans are permanently tired of the chalk board exposition prominent in these types of films, and his picture trades out smart, meaningful dialogue and passable explanation for hipper-than-thou crowd pleasing. if you’re concerned with canon, the Fraternity’s mythology, character backgrounds, Bekmambetov leaves bread crumbs lying around.
Not only has Wanted ta-ta’d the rules for action, but it’s reinforced a new type of action star. When doing press on The Daily Show and Craig Ferguson, McAvoy (Atonement) has appeared humorously apologetic and surprised that his film doesn’t play like a $10 shrug burn—a movie experience he’s clearly familiar with as a viewer. This type of actor is to action what the man-child was to comedy two years ago. Unlike Jason Statham, who is cut from a grizzly ’80s cloth, McAvoy plays this role like a post-ironic Mario. I hope Hayden Christensen gets whacked and McAvoy takes his place because his indifference is ours, not the cause of it. And his spin/PR act is warranted. He’s a smart lead in a film where God, some divine power or something orders out random hits on people using a weaving apparatus called a loom. It’s so random, it’s liked getting slapped with a cartoon fish. There are even Pai Mei-wannabe training sequences using the mysterious loom with McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Jolie that would draw a dumb blank in Dirty Dancing or The Karate Kid. Not very badass.
Right when your mind starts telling you, “This scene makes me think of Gone in Sixty Seconds,” the film takes a sharp turn, leaves you welcomely disoriented and drops a successful twist/stunt in your lap. Cars flip and shimmer in the air with rockstar finesse and execution, as if caught in the invisible hands of a precocious six-year-old, and the film is not afraid to repeat such stunts, or bad one-liners like “I’m sorry,” for the pure goofy hell of it. Hey, it works. The violence is graphic, plentiful and lends the film a much needed subversiveness to level out the taffy sensibility. As Gibson’s mentor, Fox, Angelina Jolie has chosen to keep her dialogue at a coy minimum, and in this R-rated sandbox where anything can happen, she utilizes the silence to emphasize wild sex and lust that’s not there with her student. This is easily her choicest role in my opinion. She’s finally iconic on screen. She’s like Christina Lindberg in They Call Her One-Eye if those years of degradation and abuse never happened but the character still possessed a refined palette for mayhem (and bad tattoos).
Wanted banked $50 million this weekend, we can once again wonder where—not so much the comic book movie—but the action genre goes from here. Obviously, a sequel to Wanted is happening. And in post-post-Matrix worlds like Wanted’s where snipers can blow out the brains of marks from across an entire city, using tribal-etched, bending bullets like messenger pigeons (god, that sounds like it would be lame on film), we can expect more plots, characters and stunts that treat the adrenal gland like mystery meat in films that will more likely than not belong in a loony used DVD bin. John Woo goes big budget, R-rated Mouse Hunt for a subgenre, one fathered by The Transporter. To answer the film’s rhetorical “What the fuck have you done today?” line, I haven’t done much, but Timur Bekmambetov just let a lucrative cat out of the bag where any 20something character with a gun is Superman with a magic bathtub (don’t ask questions viewers), and right now the potential for exploiting this free-for-all style is breeding inside the heads of movie execs like feral rabbits. Unlike Rambo, which was a similarly violent but sturdier crowd-pleaser, Wanted is recalled like a lobotomy days later. Also, Common is sticking around.
7/10
Bonus Semi-Unrelated Movie Experience: Before I went into the screening room for Wanted, I waited online with my friend for 15 minutes to simply purchase a drink, blahblah. Between the totally unnecessary bombardment of trailers playing on TVs all around us (more than I’ve ever seen in a lobby this summer or ever), posters vying for every inch of personal space, and lots and lots of loud people in sandals it was pretty intense. In front of us was an old fat guy wearing a pink, salted cap. He already had an XL popcorn and a huge soda. Why the fuck was he on line again? At his feet was a little kid carrying an empty, greasy popcorn bucket. They get to the front, I’m already over the wait. They take forever for no apparent reason. I say to my friend, “This is a fucking anxiety attack waiting to happen. What is going on?” Finally, the old dude boosts the little kid up to the counter, and the kid drops 50 cents into the hand of the theater employee. His bucket is filled with popcorn, topped off with five huge buttery squirts and handed back to him, while still in the old guy’s grip. Then the little kid says, “Thank you” and waddles off. And the old guy says, “You’re welcome. Have fun lil’ buddy.” He then buys four boxes of candy. They were complete strangers. Maybe you had to be there, but it was fucking bizarre. After taking a seat in the screening room with a small Sprite and five Sour Patch Kids wrapped in a napkin, the movie started. It was that much more enjoyable watching a modern dork/hero gobble Xanax after Xanax to counter severe anxiety induced by the world’s expanding suckage.
Movie Rating due to this experience: 7.5/10
June 28th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
i’m only gonna watch this for the scene where Angelina walks out of the jaccuzi butt naked ;)
June 28th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
this movie sucked
June 28th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
@starblazer101
that scene is not really worth your time then…… the action is good but over top nonsense, that works well with this film. The movie was good but after seeing Wall-e a few hours after I have to say that Wal-e will difintely #1 for a few weeks.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I personally loved the movie
June 28th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
An experience. I enjoyed it more than Wall-e.
What a kick ass summer this has been.
Hancock
Hellboy
Dark Knight
Ready and willing.
p.s.
Hunter, I and most people who like this genre, Adrenilaction?, really don’t care if anything goes, or if a man still lives after falling out of a helicopter and landing atop a car.
June 29th, 2008 at 12:12 am
i was expecting lulz but was sort of disappointed, until the scene where he broke in / ran through the hallway blasting. shooting with the gun in someones face, SO GOOD
loom of fate is epic fail though.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Wanted is a mind-f**kingly good time.
A fantasy-action film for males! It bends reality and
unlike Indiana Jones 4, which was uncalled for, Wanted
sets up the audience for its unbelievable kills. I see
a cult classic coming. Wanted IS the next Repo-Man
in comic book adapations. Its brutal, loud and
annoyingly fun.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Funny review mate.
I too enjoyed this “popcorn movie”, but instead of popcorn or candy and soda, a sneaked-in Stella Artois worked just as well.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:22 am
I disagree with the reviewer, his comment about “endless ammor”. the movie makers almost make a point to slow down the action just to reload.
even in the final scene where the “endless ammo” would be almost given, there is a clear shortage of ammo per gun
“not trying too hard is vital to coming off cool ” as a message, yea right, the main charactor sais very bluntly get off your ass a do somepthing for yourself
June 29th, 2008 at 3:23 am
At my theater, Wanted was sold out while Wall-e was not. I’m surprised because I didn’t even know there was that much buzz about Wanted.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:24 am
endless ammo**
and im sorry but i would love if GTA had any slow motion that is in the picture, or the fast pased action in this picture, WHICH IT DOESNT.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:26 am
controlling bullets like messenger pigions? wow this reviewer has a bleek outlook on an attempt to see somepthing the no one of this generation has scene.
i personally thought the tribal bullets was a nice touch diddnt see a cornyness about it.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Hunter, I like your style.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Surely, SURELY, you waited IN line? Sorry, but that drove me crazy. Is that really an Americanization?
June 29th, 2008 at 5:45 am
I think someone needs to put Jolie on the list that says; “PLEASE STAY OUT OF THE MOVIES, YOU SUCK!” She is not attractive, not a good role model, a former home-wrecker, drug addict (former pending) and she can’t act to save her life. France can have her, every movie she shows her mommiest dearest face in flops! Somebody get the hint, she is done! And the Pittiful can’t even come close to a Redford look a like, he is was a flash in the pan, nothng more so he and Jolie can sail off into the sun-burst together!
June 29th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Quite possibly the most manly film of the year (so far). Awesome special effects, from one of Russia’s most prolific directors, with decent acting and PLENTY of gore and violence to-boot. Narrative could’ve done with an overhaul, and Angelina Jolie needed to be more…naked. But if you didn’t enjoy the penultimate scene with James McAvoy laying his vengeance among many, many people. Then you may have to re-consider your sexuality. That’s what I thought anyway… :p
June 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Wanted is this year’s “Shoot ‘Em Up,” but better. This’ll have frat guys imitating bullet-curving for six months, until they forget about it. Good review, Hunter.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:37 am
I pulled a fanboy muscle when I heard they changed the entire story of the comic book. I got over it thought, but after much soul searching this seems like it has ppv or hollywood video written all over it.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:38 am
wanted had every fucking cliche in the book, also it was so slow, why do audiences need to have every piece of information spoon fed to them nowadays, the action sequences were cool as hell though but 30 minutes of action and and hour and a half of boring dialogue which most didnt even further the plot in anyway just explained shit that didnt need to be explained…the I am you father lie was a fucking joke..
June 29th, 2008 at 8:39 am
line*
June 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am
The review was fun to read…
I guess I kind of feel the same. I’m all for mindless violence as long as it “looks” cool, but as a person that grew up in the “Die Hard” days of action, I can only agree that these new action movies are falling short.
The advancement of CGI tircks, and other computer generated stuff I think is the culprit because it gives the director an excuse to be cheesy at the expense of telling a good scene/story.
Cult classic? Maybe, but this film just pulls 9/10 elements from other movies, and just matches them, and one-ups them at times. No too much originality. If the hero and the story could match the action, then we could be talking about a next-gen action flick that might give McClane a run for his money.
Watching Wall-E today. What a contrast….
June 29th, 2008 at 10:44 am
@ jerry butler
hello. to clarify, i don’t think the fat guy buying candy was up to anything illegal. if anything he was a sugar molester.
@ IndieFilm
The next Repo Man? Cult classics open to $50 mill+?
June 29th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
As far as the film, with ticket prices @ ~$12, would you recommend going out to see this flick, or will torrent do fine?
June 29th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Shame on you Jolie this is a black female role, not a white one, do you want to be black, what’s up with this!!!!
June 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
She adopts balck children, so the answer is clearly……yes.
that’s whats up with all the tats. She’s begun her flesh color transformation……..one piece of skin pigment at a time.
this convo just begs for a photochop job of Jolie as a black person. or…not.
June 29th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
@ jerry butler
No sure what happened to your first comment, to answer your new comment (that needs to be approved)…
“with ticket prices @ ~$12, would you recommend going out to see this flick, or will torrent do fine?”
Yeah, I’d recommend going to see it in a theater. The scope of the stunts/assassinations is worth the ticket price. Also, it will be a while before an R-rated comic book film hits the screen again, especially one that is this cocky and swimming with kinetic violence.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Bleh… I was very disappointing with this movie. All the action sequences were really good but the problem was that there were not enough of them. I mean seriously when I go to watch a movie like wanted I’m just looking for some cool action why they wasted so much time on lame exposition is beyond me. The whole first hour with the introduction and the training was very boring. I felt that the intro stuff went on for way too long. I enjoyed the first 10 mins of iintro to Wesley but it kept going on and on. The story was lame and I don’t hold that against the movie… what my problem is that they wasted too much time on the story not on action. That is the reason movies like Cloverfield and Shoot em up are much better, they knew what they were trying to do and did not was time on obligatory exposition… they got straight to the meat where as this one does not… oh well whatever.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Personally, I enjoyed it. It was even better than I thought it would, and I already thought it would be good… I like this new underdog-as-the-hero thing going on in movies nowadays.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
My gf and I enjoyed it. After my stressful week it was just fun to watch something that crazy and fun. Both her and I agreed that it was not a perfect film but again it was fun. I just love the last line of the movie “What the fuck have you done to day!” Just love how it was just a big fuck you to the world and how it is. Now the insane part about going to see ‘Wanted’ for me and my was a 20year old couple that brought their damn 3yr old daugheter to see it! My gf was pissed she was going to yell out something at them but I stopped her that one.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Saw both WallE and Wanted this weekend. Enjoyed both, liked Wanted much better though. See both films on the big screen this summer…
June 30th, 2008 at 5:23 am
@Brian
Same thing happened when I went to see it. Someone brought a baby to the movie and it cried so much they eventually had to leave early.
June 30th, 2008 at 7:14 am
loved it! it’s a lot like fight club for twenty year olds w/guns
June 30th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I don’t get it, why are you mad at guy for helping a kid??
Is that something wrong in America!!!?
June 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am
The movie was terrible… the “Loom of Fate” - REALLY??!
June 30th, 2008 at 11:45 am
@Amy
Maybe you went to the wrong action movie. I went to the one where bullets curve, people run at 80mph, bombs are strapped to rats, snipers can shoot people from miles away, and people get execution notices from fucking looms.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Haha - fair enough… i DID enjoy the action sequences they were rad, i was just expecting amazing action AND amazing story-line. asking too much? perhaps…
June 30th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I thought it was pretty sick — though the first hour is cribbed straight from Matrix I and the “inspiration” doesn’t end there. The opening sequence and the run through the loom house was worth the $10.50.
I’d definitely recommend renting Nightwatch and Daywatch if you liked the director’s visual play. They’re a fun take on the vampire story.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Angie Jolie is the ugliest woman i have ever seen.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
@Amy
I wasn’t really satisfied with the story either. If the narration wasn’t there it would’ve been a long 2hrs. The humor, quirkiness, cinematography, and action were the highlights for me.
I loved Crank and Shoot Em Up so you could say I’m a wee bit bias in this genre. :)
July 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am
Dear Matrix,
Allow me to move my penis a bit to the left so you can lick my balls.
Yours in radness,
Wanted