If you like car chases, gun-play, some good stunt work, and a little mix of dark comedy, then you will like Wanted. This film stars James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in the leads, with Morgan Freeman in an interesting supporting role.
**spolier alert**
Wesley (McAvoy) is an accountant in a dead end job, whose girlfriend cheats on him with his "best friend", and he has minor panic attacks to boot. This all changes when Fox (Jolie) grabs him out of a pharmacy a micro-second ahead of an assassin's bullet, and the action commences. We quickly learn Fox is a member of an elite group of assassins called the Fraternity, and Wesley is going to be the newest recruit. Sloan (Freeman) is the head of this crew, and he doles out the hit contracts, which are supposedly sent to the Fraternity by Fate, to "keep things in balance". Wesley learns his father, who was one of the best assassins of the Fraternity, was killed by another "rogue assassin" named Cross, so of course, Wesley wants to eliminate Cross, himself. The deceptions unfold, and the bullets fly. Not too many people are left standing by the end of this one.
I really liked the action scenes - they make this totally worth seeing - especially the way they can bend their bullet's paths. The members of the Fraternity are almost super-human, because of their ability to control their flow of adrenaline, which in turn allows them to engage in almost comic-book-like stunts, and not-so coincidentally, Wanted is based on a comic book.
The real "problem" of the movie, in my opinion, is a gaping plot transition between when Wesley had trained to hone his assassin skills and gone out on his first missions, to when he goes to Europe to engage Cross. There were great action sequences as Wesley pursued Cross, especially the fight that ensues on the train, but when Wesley shoots Cross and he quickly reveals that Cross is, in fact, Wesley's father, it was somewhat of a let down. Just before Wesley left for the Cross hit, Sloan had handed Fox a contract for Wesley, so it seemed "something" was just not right. These 2 items in and of themselves were not the problem, it just seemed like whole idea of the Fraternity, or Sloan more specifically, being "evil" was just thrown at us, and then there was a slam-bam-bang ending, and then that was it. I think if there would have been an any attempt to develop the idea that Sloan was the rogue element and develop the lead into Wesley discovering Cross was his father, this would/could have been a great movie (as opposed to just a decent action flick). And as many of my criticisms often note, there is no way to know what may or or may not have hit the cutting room floor - as far as those development /transition issues.
'R' rating is for violence, language, and sexual situations. Watch for the action, check out Angelina's cool tattoo's, but don't get too hung up on the plot and you will enjoy.
I really liked the action scenes - they make this totally worth seeing - especially the way they can bend their bullet's paths. The members of the Fraternity are almost super-human, because of their ability to control their flow of adrenaline, which in turn allows them to engage in almost comic-book-like stunts, and not-so coincidentally, Wanted is based on a comic book.The real "problem" of the movie, in my opinion, is a gaping plot transition between when Wesley had trained to hone his assassin skills and gone out on his first missions, to when he goes to Europe to engage Cross. There were great action sequences as Wesley pursued Cross, especially the fight that ensues on the train, but when Wesley shoots Cross and he quickly reveals that Cross is, in fact, Wesley's father, it was somewhat of a let down. Just before Wesley left for the Cross hit, Sloan had handed Fox a contract for Wesley, so it seemed "something" was just not right. These 2 items in and of themselves were not the problem, it just seemed like whole idea of the Fraternity, or Sloan more specifically, being "evil" was just thrown at us, and then there was a slam-bam-bang ending, and then that was it. I think if there would have been an any attempt to develop the idea that Sloan was the rogue element and develop the lead into Wesley discovering Cross was his father, this would/could have been a great movie (as opposed to just a decent action flick). And as many of my criticisms often note, there is no way to know what may or or may not have hit the cutting room floor - as far as those development /transition issues.
'R' rating is for violence, language, and sexual situations. Watch for the action, check out Angelina's cool tattoo's, but don't get too hung up on the plot and you will enjoy.
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