‘Wanted’ With Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy Concocts Curving Bullet in Gluttonously Entertaining Blockbuster

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – With curving, clinking and kissing bullets, “Wanted” indeed does Chicago proud. And Angelina Jolie sells it. And Morgan Freeman is ominous. And in his body of work, James McAvoy – the star of this orgasmic summer blockbuster – becomes a man.

Fox (Angelina Jolie) shoots from the driver’s side of her Dodge Viper in the action-thriller that tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice in “Wanted”.
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Many Chicagoans have been keenly aware of the film’s local filming throughout downtown Chicago and Broadview, Ill.

Angelina Jolie as Fox in “Wanted”. Photo credit: Jaap Buitendijk

After also focusing its filming lens throughout the Czech Republic and Hungary, Chicago’s prominence reigns surprisingly dominant and central to the film’s assassin-based plot of one “apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice”.

James McAvoy is the man of the hour, and in a short 110 minutes, is handed a Hollywood renovation from an initially fear-laden, listless boy to a surgically precise killer who’d give Matt Damon’s character (Jason Bourne) in “The Bourne Ultimatum” a fight for his life.

“Wanted” features Chicago front and center not only in its aesthetics but also central to its high-adrenaline pacing and action sequences. The Universal Pictures film needed exactly this big-city, fast-action feel to haunt McAvoy with the necessary vibrations in his quest to decide who he really is.

While “Wanted” is chock full of innovation – especially in its fight sequences and “The Matrix”-inspired special effects on ludicrously entertaining Hollywood steroids – the film at times still falls victim to the traditional stereotypes of what you’d expect in an assassin action-thriller with an ever-increasing death count.

“Wanted,” which was pushed back to a June 27, 2008 release date from an initial March 28, 2008 plan, won’t accrue the high marks and huge numbers it deserves because of its story alone. This is an outright action fest of sensory enchantment, carnal killing and orgasmic delight.

James McAvoy as Wesley in the action-thriller that tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice in “Wanted”.
Photo credit: Jaap Buitendijk

While ultimately not blown away by the power of its story as a whole – yes, it can be said “Wanted” is just another assassin film with big names, fancy sequencing and the PR machine in full gear – James McAvoy’s character is an important one many people can relate to. As well, it actually conveys a valuable message.

On the flip side, the “Loom of Fate” is a god-awful plotline decision. A loom in a textile factory that spells out who you should kill and assassins blindly follow the decades-old machine to the bloody death of someone they’ve never met and know nothing about? Cut. Edit. Rewrite. Something else. Just not that.

But like McAvoy as Wesley Gibson, are you also in a dead-end, 9-to-5 desk job that you either just tolerate or actually despise because you have bills to pay even though your passion might be something else entirely that can’t pay your living?

A handcrafted bullet makes its way to an unfortunate target in the action-thriller that tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice in “Wanted”.
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Not all of us have the bravado to utter the sure-to-get-fired “death mouth” to the boss. Certainly in the real world we don’t then transform into a crushing assassin and find our calling in offing people. But this is just a metaphor to inspire you to find and live your own calling.

While the plot’s somewhat tired – yeah, yeah: no one can trust anyone, everyone’s out to get someone and one man must learn to rise above them all – first-time U.S. film director Timur Bekmambetov sells the journey as one that’s genuinely inspirational.

The “Wanted” we’re seeing now, though, came from an entirely different origin: comic books.

Not only was the entire “supervillains take over the world” storyline dropped in this “Wanted” but originally in the comic book the story takes place in an alternate present day. Bekmambetov’s “Wanted” strays so significantly from its comic origins that you can hardly tell where it came from.

The premise was for these supervillains to “band together … and use their vast collective powers – including mad science, magic and mind control – to eliminate all the world’s superheroes and rewrite reality in their own dark image.”

Instead – and along with delivering a delicious and indisputably entertaining film – screenwriters Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan manage to dig down deep and pose one of the more thought-provoking questions a blockbuster has taunted audiences with in some time:

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY View our huge, high-resolution “Wanted” image gallery. RELATED AUDIO  Listen to our episode-two podcast on “Wanted” and more. RELATED READING Read more news on “Wanted”. More film reviews from critic Adam Fendelman.

It’s a critically important question. On one hand, intended “Wanted” moviegoers have already committed to purchasing their ticket because Hollywood allows us to peer into the darkest depths of our most primal instincts and unshackle the chastity belts of our most sensual fantasies.

But on the other – a side you wouldn’t foresee in a film with the mission to dish out a decidedly raucous ass kickin’ – McAvoy’s pursuit to buck the normalcy of his paper-pushing life and his verbally abusive cubicle boss in favor of something that makes him feel alive shouldn’t inspire us to unleash our literal killer within.

In the subtle subtext of this entertainment behemoth, we are urged to find our own path that transforms our life into one that’s worth living. We are to choose one where waking up and falling asleep every day isn’t all for nothing. Rather than just floating by, it’s time to wake up and be alive.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Editor-in-Chief HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]