2008 is turning out to be a good summer for blockbusters: instead of the usual, hastily-assembled hollow fare (yes, I’m looking at you Transformers) there have been a number of well-made films which truly deserve the accolade: So far we’ve had films like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk which showed that with the right script and director, comic books adaptations can matter. Now add to this list the new screen sensation Wanted.
Based on the series of comic books by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones and directed by Russian wonder-man Timur Bekmambetov, Wanted tells the story of WESLEY GIBSON (played by the talented James McAvoy). Wes is the most disaffected, cube-dwelling, clock-punching drone this planet has ever known. His boss chews him out hourly, his girlfriend ignores him routinely, and his life plods on in interminable boredom and routine. Everyone knows this disengaged slacker will amount to absolutely nothing, and so does he, until he meets a woman named FOX (played by Angelina Jolie), and then everything changes. Wes' estranged father is murdered, and the deadly Fox takes him to meet SLOAN (played by Morgan Freeman) the ipso facto leader of The Fraternity: a sect of assassins of which Wes’ father was a member. Sloan recruits Wes into The Fraternity promising him vengeance. However all is not as it seems.
The original comic book on which the script is based on impressive for its’ skewered take on world history and politics: the idea of the story being told from the point of the super-villains who have actually been victorious and able to change history was inventive and full of humour. It was also quite violent with wonderful artistic touches in order to expand on the action.
And for such an adaptation Timur Bekmambetov seems to be just the right man. After witnessing the visual wonders he created in both Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) and Day Watch (Dveynoy Dozor) where the budget was spectacularly low, it is great to see him come onto his own with an action flick where the action most of the time re-invents itself. The special effects in Wanted are often and varied but they never feel pointless: unlike the CGI filled fests of yester-year, Mr. Bekmambetov seems to base his action on emotion therefore creating a link throughout the film.
It is also extremely gratifying to see an action film which does not skimp on the violent side of what happens on the screen. Now let me re-assure you that I’m not suggesting films should be constructed with wall-to-wall gore but sometimes it makes all the difference when you can see the damage a punch can cause. In Wanted, there’s plenty of this: knives cut deep wounds, blood flows from gunshots and people get battered and bruised in fights: all in all Wanted shows you the damage the way it’s meant to be seen.
One of the other impressive advantages that Bekmambetov brings to the film is his vision. The film looks impressive, for the first part set in an everyday America but as the story goes on, moving deeper into industrial territory with impressive stretches of Eastern Europe thrown in. Here Bekmambetov uses all the location work from his previous films to work in favour of Wanted, instead of exotic locales we get a fantastic European flavour even down to the make of the cars in the wonderfully-shot train sequence.
Obviously all the visual trickery and the tricks of the trade would be nothing if the film had been cursed with a talentless cast: luckily McAvoy, who is nearly in every scene of the film, pulls off the role of everyman turned action-man and Jolie is as good as ever in the role of the sexy Fox. Playing Sloan must not have been a hard turn for Morgan Freeman who after playing God twice, again plays a different sort of leader/God. Credit must also go to Thomas Krestchmann as the cool-as-ice Cross and Bekmambetov regular (and also the star of both Night Watch and Day Watch) Konstantin Khabensky as The Exterminator. Marc Warren also impressed in a small role as The Repairman and it is always gratifying to see Terence Stamp even if it is only for a few small scenes.
All in all Wanted is a wonderful spectacle that jumps off the screen from the start and does not let go until the credits stopped rolling. It’s violent; it’s well-written but most important of all: it is extremely entertaining. And you can’t ask for much more than for a blockbuster now, can you?
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