nan | 楠木

Wanted is essentially your usual male adrenaline pumping shoot ‘em-up, even in the literal sense. James McAvoy stars as the ordinary loser who is actually the son of a top assassin from the ultra-secret Fraternity which has been around for a millennium.  He is found by the organization – led by Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie – after his father’s death. With a little proper training, he can bend bullets and he will stop at nothing to seek vengeance.

What works about Wanted, or the first 30 minutes or so of the film, is its deliberately cheesy and over-the-top style. Yeah, these guys can bend bullets, defy gravity, and break the sound barrier. Think of it as The Matrix meets The Transporter, with a dab of Fight Club‘s philosophical tone, and you won’t be far off the end result here. However after this fairly intriguing opening act (where most of the best stunts happen, by the way), the film then does the unthinkable – it begins to take its absurd plot far too seriously, and tries to give the character depth of thought (of course it fails), and by doing so the film degenerates into your usual pretentious action film. Why so serious?

Regardless, the film’s highlights are worthwhile, and any action junkie should at least see the opening 30 minutes as well as the final 15, where there is a very videogame-like sequence. Guilty fun.

7/10