Gamertell

Title: Wanted
Release Date: June, 27, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Universal Studios (Top Cow)
Rating: R
Pros: Good acting from the two main stars, guilty pleasure if your into this type of film, first Top Cow comic-to-film adaption
Cons: Weak story, doesn’t follow the comic, dull set design, too loud, unbelievable action sequences, the film has no identity of its own
Overall Score: One Thumb Sideways, One Thumb Down, 67/100, D+, * 1/2 Stars

Just when comic book films were starting to reach new heights, along comes Wanted to knock everything back down.

Yes, It was a Comic Book First

It isn’t likely that most people that are going to see Wanted will know that it is based on a Top Cow comic that stopped being published in 2004. While most comics are on some nameless producer’s desk for decades, Wanted obviously got the fast track to the big screen. If you did managed to read the mini-series, then you’ll probably be disappointed at the fact that this film has very little to do with the comic.

Wanted follows the exploits of a mild-mannered accounted named Wesley Bibson (James McAvoy) who learns that he is destined to join the Fraternity, an order of elite assassins led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman).

Saved by and then recruited into the Fraternity by the beautiful Fox (Angelina Jolie), Bibson sets out to uncover the mystery of his father’s past, the origins of the Fraternity and avoid a former Fraternity assassin (Thomas Kretschmann) who is hunting his comrades down one by one.

Sure, it all sounds good on paper but Wanted is a loud and loony mess of a movie that seems like a rejected script for the first Matrix movie, right down to the opening scene.

Get Ready for a Headache

Wanted has almost nothing to do with the actual graphic novels of the same name, about a league of villains that have secretly taken over the world.Wanted instead drops all the original comic book material and ops for film that is one part The Matrix and one part Mr. and Mrs. Smith, grounded in the real world over that of the fictional comic theme world.

It isn’t often that movie actually gives me a headache but Wanted is so loud and frantic that twenty minutes in, I was ready to walk - or dizzyingly wobble - out. While the action might impress some people, it defies all laws of physics that it is almost insulting to the viewers intelligence to believe that such a concept is even possible.

While Wanted might have gotten away with this if it had been a true comic book movie, being set in the real world, it makes almost no sense that bullets spontaneously turn corners or continue on the same arching path even after it has ripped through a dozen men’s skulls. This is the major selling point to the film, but while this concept worked in films like the Matrix, in Wanted, it is just plain stupid to comprehend. 

Wanted suffers from bad visuals too. This is just a boring film to look at that doesn’t have much in terms of story nor is it original. How many times have we seen a movie where our star is bored with his mediocre life? Worse still, the star tries to make us feel bad because we aren’t him. There are several points in the film where he makes the statement that most of us, if not all, live meaningless lives. Sorry, I don’t have millions in the bank and take pride in killing people for no good reason, apparently our star does.

The film quality its self is very white washed or grey, but this doesn’t seem like the film makers are going for a visual style, but simply didn’t have the cash to spend on a real cinematographer. The sets seem as if they were built in parking garages. While I also have no problem with franticly paced movies, the quick cuts and over the top stunts really detracted from putting you into the action.

Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie do a decent job in this movie but they seem really out of place in this script. Jolie doesn’t say much throughout the whole movie and mostly just stands around staring into the camera looking sexy, even when dodging bullets or performing impossible stunts.

McAvoy is really hard to accept in his role. He just comes by his so-called gifts too easily and treats the Fraternity as its namesake suggests, a frat house (until they start beating the snot out of him).

No More, Please

I guess you might call Wanted a guilty pleasure, or maybe it is just the actors, but people seemed to have flocked to the theaters over the weekend as Wanted brought in an estimated $51 million. Frankly, while I dread this film, I put it right up there with The Happening as worst movie of the year.

I am glad to see it do well, only because it will open the doors for other, better, Top Cow comics to make it to the big screen. Of course, I would rather chew my own foot off than see a Wanted 2.

Site [Wanted] Site [Top Cow Comics]