Wanted is very much a film in three acts. The first half-hour makes you think the whole movie won’t give you a second to catch your breath. These 30 minutes practically stand alone. There is a clear resolution to the first act, and it’s a knockout (literally).
After such a fast-paced start, the second Wanted stops to expound to us the details behind the mysterious order of the assassins it showcases, the air rushes right out of the picture. Wanted manages to get some of that energy back by its finale, but it never fully recaptures the initial rush.
Soul-crushed office worker Wesley (James McAvoy, Atonement) puts up with his tyrannical boss and pretends he doesn’t A simple story would have allowed more straight-forward action, which is really what Wanted is all about.
But even the action runs out of tricks fairly quickly. Scribes Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (who wrote the 3:10 to Yuma remake) with an assist by Chris Morgan (Cellular), adapting from Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic book series, only have a set number of action gags.
The bullets can bend. The assassins can shoot each other’s bullets in the air. Wesley’s father is able to jump between skyscrapers (a terrific moment), but it seems the rest of the assassins don’t share such a power. Other than those quirks, the fighting remains fairly typical, with the occasional “wow” flourish, such as when Wesley uses the inside of a man’s head to hold his gun and shoots through a building of assassins.
Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov (the Night Watch series) knows a thing or two about “wow” flourishes. Working with a higher budget than his Night Watch films, Bekmambetov throws the camera around with flair. He’s never met a head he didn’t want to show a bullet going through in super-slow motion.
As for the actors, McAvoy shows himself to be a thespian with range. Typically playing confident and attractive leads (see Atonement and The Last King of Scotland) he gets a surprising amount of laughter as the wimpy nerd Wesley, before switching back into confident leading man mode for the latter half of the film. Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart) is in full-on sexy mode as a female assassin, something she pulls off with ease. And Morgan Freeman (The Bucket List) plays leader Sloan as another wise mentor figure.
Wanted starts and ends as a ridiculously super-charged action picture, one so enthusiastic in its verve you want to get on board and just enjoy the ride. But in the middle it turns into another studio-packaged summer action flick. And while the ending revives some of the beginning’s promise, it doesn’t make up for the sub-par middle. ‘Tis not the season for cinematic ingenuity.
dan.benamor@gmail.com
RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
