Wanted
June 28, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.
Poor Wesley Gibson is insubstantial. With a hellish cubicle job, cheating girlfriend and uncontrollable anxiety attacks, all he needs to top things off is a secret fraternity of assassins looking to beat him to a bloody pulp and transform him into the perfect weapon in six weeks time. Bloody, wicked and thrilling, Wanted is custom made for the summer action audience.
You know you’re in for a brutal battle when the body count for the opening scene comes in at a cool half dozen. But this is not a typical “shoot ‘em up” action flick. Car chase, check. Gun fights, check. But when was the last time you saw someone cruise a city atop a speeding train to take out an unsuspecting target?
Angelina Jolie plays Fox, an intense, fire-eyed super assassin assigned to transform a humdrum civilian into the top-notch killing machine that lurks in his DNA. The heavily armed, tattooed beauty brutally hazes Wesley (played by James McAvoy), who is being trained to take out the man who killed his father. A father who, coincidentally enough, happened to be one of the greatest assassins of his time and passed down his talents to his only son.
The film is full of moments that will leave you wide eyed and slack jawed. Try as you might to catch your breath during wildly intense scenes, you can’t help but turn to those around you with a look of, “Did that really just happen?” And it did. It is the endless thrill of Wanted from the opening scene to the final moments that tempt you to go back and see it again. And maybe again.
Continuing the trend of Hollywood-ized graphic novels, Wanted is cinematically stimulating and lives up to its “wow” expectations. Containing all the elements of a thrilling action film, it ups the anti, putting a little extra love into its plot and special effects. What could you become in six weeks? Only fate will tell.
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