Review of Wanted

An action film based loosely on the comic book miniseries Wanted by Mark Millar, the movie Wanted is director’s Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch) Hollywood debut.

The word here is ‘loosely’. If you had read and loved the miniseries, then you are going to be disappointed at this movie. Director Timur Bekmambetov basically kept the names of the characters from the miniseries…and nothing else.

Whereas the comic book ‘Wanted’ was set in a world where evil supervillians had won and ruled the planet, the movie ‘Wanted’ had a thousand-year-old secret society of super assassins called ‘The Fraternity’ who are out to maintain order in the world. Got that? If your mind can get around this plot difference, you might like the movie.

The movie is full of thrilling stunts and action scenes which will rival anything you will found in any other summer blockbuster and Bekmambetov kept them coming. At no point did I find the movie slow because car chases and shootouts came one after another. Look out especially for an excellent one at the start when Wesley and Fox first meet.

The one thing I will say the film had absolutely right was the cast. James McAvoy as Wesley Allan Gibson and Angelina Jolie as Fox were perfectly cast in their role. Angelina Jolie has to be the hottest religious fanatic ever to be seen on screen. Morgan Freeman as Sloan, the leader of The Fraternity, was excellent in the first half of the film. However in the second half, I had a hard time picturing him as a man who was so afraid of his own death that he would betrayed everything he own dear just to survive, but that could just be me.

While I dislike the way the story deviated so strongly from the comic book, the movie is still a highly entertaining action film. Watch it if you are looking for a mindless action flick, just don’t read the comic book first.