Wanted Movie Review
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and Thomas Kretschmann
I saw a special screening of this in Austin last night. Going in I wasnt expecting much since the trailers in my opinion look like utter shite. By the time I walked out I had a huge grin on my face and couldnt wait to tell others about it. Not only would I say it was good I was say it was extremely good. Yes it had the Matrix bullet time slo mo and effects but this was taken up another notch. Also mix in a good dose of Fight Club and a pinch of some great comedic elements and you have the concoction of Wanted.
The movie is about a fraternity of assassins that have been around for over 1000 years that kill predetermined targets, that is part of destiny. One of the agents goes rogue and starts to pick them off one by one. The leader, Sloan(Morgan Freeman) decides to recruit the son of one of the deceased agents in hopes of training him to kill the rogue agent, Cross. The son (James McAvoy) is a desk jockey that hates his job and his life and wonders daily what his purpose in life is. He has a fat bitch for a boss, his best friend is fucking his girlfriend and he suffers from anxiety attacks. One day in another awesome action sequence he is picked up Fox (Angelina Jolie) who is protecting him from the assassin Cross and taken back to their headquarters. There he is explained who he is and what he is destined for. After a rigorous and cool montage of training sessions he finally turns into a lethal killer. Finally he is prepared to go after the man who killed his father, the assassin Cross.
I dont want to give too much away but there are of course so twists and turns and a terrific wrap up sequence. There are about 4 major action sequences and all of them are top notch especially the train sequence. I know the story is far fetched and not exactly the most original but the dialogue and style was so refreshing. The true hero of the story was the humor. From the very beginning voice overs of James McAvoy to the "pussy, pussy" chants of one of the assassins during a battle, the humor is spot on and works. Also there is a great monologue from Morgan Freeman with him exclaiming "shoot that motherfucker" that had everyone surprised and laughing.
Now I can see why they are having so many advance screenings, im sure they are banking on good worth of mouth on the movie which hopefully will make it a sleeper hit. This is easily in my top 10 of the year in a year so far of good quality movies that Ive seen. This is highly recommended and on a scale of 1-10 I give it a peanut butter eating rat bombs 8.8 out of 10.