Hey all, Ambush Bug here, taking a time out from AICN Comics to review WANTED.
I had a chance to see the movie last week and I'm just getting around to writing something about it.
If I were to boil WANTED down to its basic elements, I'd say the film was a watered down version of FIGHT CLUB by way of THE MATRIX. Now both FIGHT CLUB and THE MATRIX are potent films, so even diluted, it's an interesting premise to wrap a film around and I can appreciate that the powers that be at Universal had the balls to go through with an R rating for this one even though it may mean a bit of a difficult sell in this PG-13 friendly box office world we live in right now. People who like FIGHT CLUB and THE MATRIX will like this film for the same reasons they like those films: it’s violent, loud, bloody, and fast-paced. But people who love those films may find WANTED to be a bit redundant and stale compared to the real thing.But WANTED is a fun film and it has a whole lot going for it. The director, Timur Bekmambetov, has proven himself to be one of those talents that pique my interest every time I see the name. His work on NIGHTWATCH and especially the senses-shattering DAYWATCH definitely proves that he can handle big budget action and fantasy. But with all of the flash and flair, both of those films lacked in heart, with DAYWATCH being the worst of the two falling back on sitcom-style antics like gender swapping and sight gags to fill the gap. WANTED doesn't fall into those traps. Bekmambetov plays this one straight and out of the three it is definitely his most complete and competent film to date.
The action sequences involving trains sliding off of tracks and bullets being shot out of the air by other bullets were indeed thrilling. Again, as with DAYWATCH, the director and his effects team know how to choreograph a car chase and make it something you haven't seen before. Aspects of this film reminded me a lot of the excitement I felt when I first saw THE PROFESSIONAL and the breath-taking twists and turns Luc Besson took us through there (but of course, hopefully, Bekmambetov won't follow in Besson's footsteps by mellowing out with something like the snoozer-ific THE MESSENGER or the hokified FIFTH ELEMENT). The car-fu that goes on in this film is most assuredly reminiscent of this summer's first dud, SPEED RACER, but the smaller budget and the fact that it seemed like real (not cartoon) cars were used made it all the more dire, more edge-of-your-seat-y to watch. The bullet-fu was pretty cool too. Curving the bullet. Shooting a bullet in the air to block another. These are things hinted at in THE MATRIX's bullet-time scenes, but used in new and exciting ways here.
Aside from the effects, though, the film isn't really anything we haven't seen before. I've was never a big fan of Mark Millar's comics (for those of you who don't know, WANTED originally was a comic book miniseries published by Top Cow Comics and was optioned for film before the final issues were even completed...much like the offensively over-hyped, Millar-scribed KICK-ASS currently fellating itself on a comic book shelf near you). It's a wonder that the plucky Scotsman gets any comic book writing done at all with all of the winking and nodding that goes on in his stories. I've read WANTED the comic and found it to be both Millar's most satisfying comic book work to date and his most infuriating. I don't want to ruin the book for those of you who will race out to your local comic shop to buy the trade after seeing the film this weekend, but to sum it up, Millar spends six issues making you care for these characters only to give the middle finger to the reader in the end for caring so much about them. It's the kind of rancor I often sense while reading comics from Mr. Millar, as if he really wanted to be a screenwriter and is angry for having to stoop to the level of writing funny books.
I'm happy to report that I didn't feel as much of the snide "FUCK YOU, FANS!" message in Bekmambetov’s film as I did with Millar’s book. It's more of a film about repressed rage than anything else. Like Edward Norton's nameless character in FIGHT CLUB, WANTED's main character Wesley (James McAvoy) is a man out of control of his life and in search of both a place and a goal for himself. His life has every Country & Western song cliché you can name sans the dead dog. His girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend. He's broke. He hates his job and everyone he works with. And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Wesley looks destined to live out his life in a cubicle, typing reports to appease his obese and overbearing boss, and mumbling Happy Birthday while thin slices of bland office cake are being passed around for as long as he takes in oxygen. Like Norton in FIGHT CLUB or Keanu's Neo in THE MATRIX, his life changes dramatically when he runs into a charismatic character (here it's Angelina Jolie's Fox, there it's Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden and Carrie Anne Moss' Trinity) that introduces a dangerous and exciting world to him that exists right under his nose.
I don't want to ruin plot points or toss too many spoilers around in this review. Basically, the second section of the movie is a super-long montage where Wesley learns how to become an assassin to track down another assassin. This section of the film, while exciting, really does slow the film down and wears out its welcome, especially since the man he's after isn't developed as a character or a villain one bit. There’s a reason for that ambiguity, but it does a disservice to the film because all of the rage and determination that drives Wesley doesn't really have a properly developed antagonist as a target. By the time Wesley is able to "catch the fly with the chopsticks" I found myself feeling as if his rage was somewhat shallow and meaningless. Trying to feel a connection to a guy who is learning how to become a soulless yet perfect killing machine is a difficult thing to sell.The history of the guild of assassins both makes sense (in a comic booky way) and is pretty damn ludicrous all at once. How a bunch of weavers trained themselves to be assassins is beyond me. As with Millar's book, the story takes this comic booky premise seriously, but the concept, in the end, is just plain "loopy." Sorry about the pun, but there are parts of these weaving assassins’ formation and motivation that are a bit...(dare I say it?) ...un-be-weavable.
Fans of the comic looking for characters like Fuckwit, the Imp, Shithead, and the like will be sorely disappointed. Who knows whose decision it was to shirk a direct adaptation of this miniseries, but these characters are deeply rooted in reality. The only super-heroic things that occur happen through the bullet and car-play, the occasional healing wax bath, and maybe a few daredevil feats that suggest superhuman powers, but like the first MATRIX film, WANTED never really leaps full force into the realm of superheroes as the comic book did. Having read the comic and seen the film, the two can be enjoyed as separate entities. One embracing, then anal-raping comic book heroics. The other flirting with it. I’ll let you be the judge which is which.I've already delved too much into the plot. It's a summer movie. There are 'splosions, fast cars, Angelina's buttcrack, guns, knives, blood, and exploding rats. Any film with that stuff is worth the ticket price. It's a fun ride and while it's not as acerbic as the book, it does have its own bite and stands alone as being one of the few movies that may be more effective than the book it was inspired from.
And being from Chicago, I had a great time seeing all of the bars, shops, and streets of the town I love up there on the screen. Seeing the car chase in the Carnival Shoes parking lot and Wesley running past the bar outside of his apartment where I drank some pints just last St. Patrick’s Day were especially fun to see simply because these are places I've been a million times.
The main thing that I took from this film, though, was respect towards the director. If Sony had a brain in its collective heads, they'd nab this guy up to direct the next SPIDER-MAN film or one of the slew of other Marvel movies down the road. Why go with Raimi, who is obviously tired of the franchise? Bekmambetov's eye for original action is the true star of this one. Jolie, Freeman, McEvoy.
All of them do pretty good in this film. Terrence Stamp must have set a record for least lines spoken by a fourth-billed star. Common was dope...I guess. It was cool to see NIGHT and DAYWATCH star Konstantin Khabensky in a small but meaningful role and I was surprised when I saw BRAVEHEART loon David O'Hara in the flick. But it's director Timur Bekmambetov's knack for making things you may have seen before seem original, vivid, and fun that is the true star of this one. Given a more original story, this guy could be one of the new masters of blockbuster cinema.