Cinema review
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie
Release date 25 June 2008

Account manager Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) is introduced to a secret society of assassins by the sexy but mysterious Fox (Jolie). After being trained how to fight and curve bullets, Wesley goes after the man who killed his father…

Timur Bekmambetov’s hyper-kinetic filmmaking style was always going to find a natural home in Hollywood, and Wanted contains all the breakneck plotting, CG-enhanced action and rapid fire editing you’d expect from the man behind Night Watch and Day Watch.

Bekmambetov plays fast and loose with Mark Millar and JG Jones’s ultra-violent comic book, and much of the darkness and immorality has been toned down – though thankfully the 18 rating means the bloodshed is never too sanitised. The result is a gleefully madcap actioner that barely pauses for breath as it screeches from one artful scene of destruction to the next. One character smashes out of a skyscraper window and manages to land on the building opposite; other assassins do battle on a train as it plunges down a chasm. Action films should always be as over-the-top as possible, and Wanted certainly scores on that count.

Bekmamabetov’s camera doesn’t stay still for a second, tracking bullets as they hurtle through the air (often right through victims’ heads) and quickly cutting around the vast scenes of devastation. Yet the fact that the action scenes are obviously CG-enhanced (and sometimes entirely CG generated) gives Wanted the appearance of a computer game at times. There’s little of the genuine awe of actioners that rely on practical stunts like Die Hard 4.0, District 13 or the Bourne movies.

James McAvoy is an unlikely choice of an action hero, but that’s sort of the point. Like Neo in The Matrix and Edward Norton’s unnamed protagonist in Fight Club, Wesley begins as an apathetic office drone – bullied at work, cheated on by his girlfriend – before he’s introduced to his violent destiny. McAvoy’s baffled expressions and voiceover lend the film a rare sliver of humanity (the character is far less dark than the celebrity-raping Wesley of the comic book), and for the most part his American accent holds up well.

Elsewhere, the casting is spot on. Morgan Freeman gets a welcome chance to play dark and mysterious after too many recent sentimental roles, and Angelina Jolie gives her sexiest performance to date as the aptly named Fox. The actress gets frequent opportunities to blast big guns from car bonnets and, in one sure-to-be-talked about sequence, flashes her tattoos (and more) in a steamy recuperation room.

Eventually the quick edits, feeble character motivation and hollow core does become slightly wearisome, and there’s little here in the way of real wit or tension. But in the style over substance stakes, Wanted blasts a Michael Bay movie out of the action arena. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 6/10
Sleek, violent and about as subtle as a hammer to the kneecaps, Wanted is fun but entirely vapid.