"Curve the bullet." I realize that more ludicrous
things have been said in the history of film, but that line,
which has been featured heavily in all of the Wanted
trailers, is by far the silliest one that I've heard in a
long while. In fact, it's so out-there that it had me
convinced that I was going to get one of those classic
summer action flicks that had turned the dial too high and
entered the realm of laugh out loud one-liners and set
pieces.
And? Well, that's exactly what happened. Sort
of.
Wanted clearly takes pride in making you revisit what
over the top really means to you, but instead of causing you
to chuckle and roll your eyes constantly it keeps you
wide-eyed and willing to buy into what it's selling, which
is that if you're going to go big and loud then you should
at least do it with a lot of style and confidence.
Apart from the most slow motion-filled gunfight sequence
since the Matrix, the film starts with an almost too
long introduction to Wesley Gibson (played very well by
James McAvoy). He immediately comes off as a loser,
but before you can assume otherwise the filmmakers will have
convinced you ten times over that his life really does suck.
He suffers from panic attacks. His boss is always
berating him at his terrible job. His girlfriend is
cheating on him with his best friend/co-worker. No
one, not even Google, knows who he is. Again, his life
sucks. He knows it. You know it. Everyone
knows it.
The over-saturation of that plot point though actually works
in the flick's favor when Sloan (Morgan Freeman) and Fox
(Angelina Jolie) show up to let Wesley know that he is from
a long line of assassins who call themselves the Fraternity,
and that it's time for his miserable existence to come to an
end so that he can avenge his father and discover who he is
really meant to be. It's beyond ridiculous (especially
the different ways they play it up), but by that point
you're so sick of Wesley's normal life that you really want
him to become the craziest badass of all-time.
Then they have you.
Fortunately, from there director
Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Day Watch)
uses a solid script to his advantage and never allows the
film to let up at any moment, so even after they sink their
crazy claws into your attention you still get a lot of
action, a couple of plot twists and enough story to keep
your eyes glued to the screen.
Go see this when you're ready to have your senses
overwhelmed.
-
John Laird -
-
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