Wanted had a lot of Wasted Potential.

Overview:

A disgruntled office employee discovers that he is the son of a world class assassin and shares his father’s meta-human killing abilities.

Initial Thoughts:

Wanted stars James McAvoy as Wesley. McAvoy’s character is a shy, anxious, and clumsy office worker. Imagine your typical office worker…are you done? Okay so, McAvoy’s Wesley is that mental image multiplied by 10. His boss is always on his back about his work and his performance, Wesley’s “best friend” is having an affair with his wife, and he’s stuck in an crappy apartment with a life that he’s clearly unsatisfied with. As Wesley develops his…”powers” its clear that this movie takes heavy inspiration from The Matrix. One of the problems with this film his that it takes itself waaaay too seriously. A main character trait of Wesley is that he’s anxious, this is apparent with his constant need to say “I’m sorry” to people that he wrongs in the first act of this film. Another trait is that he’s clumsy, this is shown when he is constantly fumbling over things throughout this film. If you’re going to use these things as traits for our lead then why isn’t this film a comedy? Wesley’s compulsion to say sorry to everyone could have set up many punch lines to scenes like the grocery store shootout. This film sets up SO MANY flat out dumb ideas that we’re just supposed to go along with. Who would have thought we would see a movie where Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie try to explain how someone could curve a bullet by slinging a gun a certain way? I’ll give you time to answer that..

This film really expects the audience to just go with the dumb ideas that it introduces. Curving bullets, slowing down time, and superhuman level agility…really movie? One of the biggest sins of this film is that if it ditched the “superhuman” aspect of it and was more self aware then it would be much more watch able and ironically taken more seriously.

Characters/Performances:

James McAvoy as Wesley: McAvoy plays Wesley, basically our bumbling idiot throughout the whole film. So Wesley’s character starts out as the typical mysterious type. He is estranged from his father and theres no mention of his mother. One thing I will give McAvoy and the film credit for is it’s depiction of anxiety. Wesley is stuck at a job with a boss that he hates, she is the source of most of the anxiety seen throughout this film. McAvoy is very convincing as someone who is having an anxiety attack. Thats all the positive things I have to say about this role. I love you James, but please stop taking bad roles, dude. I just don’t buy Wesley/McAvoy as an action hero. Theres a reason his best films include X-men: Days of Future Past and Arthur Christmas, thats because he’s not front-and-center as the main hero of those films.

Angelina Jolie as Fox: Fox is an agent for the secret assassin organization and is our introduction into the underground world of this society. You want to know why she’s in this film? All she does is do cool looking things that look good in the film’s trailer and serve as exposition for the audience..thats it. She’s fun to look at but Jolie just stinks in this film. She just shoots guns and tells Wesley where to go and what to do.

Morgan Freeman as Sloan: Surprise…if you care, Sloan is our villain. Turns out the society of assassins is out to get Wesley. Freeman plays our villain and he’s just plain boring. Freeman is old, in a film with bullet curving and superhuman abilities why is our villain an old guy? Sloan never has a straight up fight with Wesley in the film and all he does is give orders to his subordinates. In an action movie, who thought this type of villain was a good idea? I have nothing else to say about Sloan other than Freeman is clearly doing this role for a quick paycheck.

Final Thoughts:

Wanted sucks. Thats it. This film fails at the basics of the action genre. It takes itself way too seriously and is a shameless ripoff of The Matrix. The action is hit or miss but I hate that its attached to such a terrible story and worse characters. The best way I can describe this film is Fast and Furious meets The Matrix. James McCoy…stop taking bad roles, you’re not a good leading man in an action film. Avoid this film unless you’re under the influence of something.

Rate:

D-