You know how you can tell if a summer blockbuster is really good? When Roger Ebert goes on for paragraph after paragraph about what’s wrong with a film and yet feels compelled to give it three stars for being so well made. Such is the case with the latest comic book adaptation to hit theaters, Wanted. Based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and J. G. Jones, it tells the story of Westley Gibson (James McAvoy), a man beaten down by a meaningless life filled with a dead end job, bullying boss, a cheating girlfriend who is sleeping with his best friend, and Westley can’t seem to really get too work up about any of it. Then one day he is approached in a drug store by Fox (Angelina Jolie), who tells him he is the son of the greatest assassin in the world and then saves him from rouge assassin Cross (Thomas Kretschmann). Taken to meet Sloan (Morgan Freeman), Wesley discovers that there is a centuries old organization of assassins called The Fraternity that have killed people to keep the world in balance. It is Wesley’s destiny to join them and kill Cross who murdered Wesley’s father only days ago, or so it seems.
The film diverges greatly from the graphic novel, which had a similar set up except for The Fraternity, in the book all of the world’s greatest villains had won and now controlled everything. One of their number gets bored with the complaisant life and starts killing them all, which leads to recruiting Wesley to save them. It was full of hints about the fate of such superheroes as Batman and Superman without actually naming them and was pure superhero comic book action. The film throws all of that out and tries to place things in a more realistic world, albeit one with people who can shoot bullets so that they curve around corners or stop another bullet in mid flight.
But hey, what’s a summer movie with out some Matrix style F/X? If you haven’t read the graphic novel , or can pretend you haven’t , Wanted is a great action packed thrill ride full of shoot outs, car chases and a couple of plot twists that cause you to reassess everything you’ve just seen. James McAvoy makes a good action hero, ably making believable Wesley’s transformation from put upon everyman to a steely eyed killer, though his Scottish accents pops up a few times. Angelina Jolie is awesome as the drop dead gorgeous cold blooded assassin who isn’t as heartless as she appears. And Morgan Freeman is his usual commanding and dignified self.
It may be preposterous when you think about it, but as a piece of mindless action Wanted is just the thing to chase away the blues on a lackluster day.
