Urban Thought Collective

WANTED (R)

MOVIE BIASES:
Curve my bullet, baby!

MAJOR PLAYERS:
James McAvoy (Atonement), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart), Morgan Freeman (Kiss the Girls), co-writers Michael Brandt & Derek Haas (3:10 to Yuma), and director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch).

THE DEAL:
Remember where you were and how you felt the first time you saw “The Matrix?” Well get ready for “Wanted.”

Apathetic account manager Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) is stuck in a dead-end job with a dead-end girlfriend, nonplussed by his dead-end life. That is until Fox (Jolie) double-barrels her way into his life, whisking him out of an impromptu supermarket shootout and into a whole new way of life, governed by the code of the Fraternity, a brotherhood of assassins. Led by the stately Sloan (Freeman), Wesley rapidly trains for a Ph.D. in the assassinatory arts in order to carry out the Fraternity code (”Kill one, maybe save a thousand”), take out the man who murdered his anonymous assassin father, plus embrace his destiny and inner hitman within.

“That’s the way you start a movie, dammit!” - Me

Boasting mind-warping special effects in addition to a visually and aurally superior, distinct directing style, Timur (I’m not even gonna chance messing up his Russian last name) delivers the epitome of the summer action movie in “Wanted:” sweet cars, hot women, and freaky-cool, relentless action. How much do I love this movie? Why, I want to copulate with it and breed brilliant little heart-racing action flicks!

I heard somewhere (erroneously, I’m sure) that there are only three stories ever told: boy meets girl, good versus evil, and who am I; everything else is a derivation. Daring to meld all three, “Wanted” is an Olympic swimmer of a movie, not taking a breath until it’s damn well ready - and even then it’s just a tiny gulp of air, giving it enough to power through what are normally repetitive strokes.

Everything in this movie is a cooler, more inventive and frenetic version of what we’ve seen before in an action movie. Curving bullets, subway car-top wrestling matches, extreme omigodthatdidnotjusthappen set pieces, an urgent Danny Elfman (Batman) score, gonzo special effects by Timur’s own Russian special effects house Bazelevs (more on that later)…Even the Brandt & Haas script brims with honor, humor, loyalty to a code, fate, and a quest for identity, all tied together by recklessly entertaining, comic book action DNA from Mark Millar & J.G. Jones.

“Like an apostle, your task is not to interpret but to deliver.” - Sloan

But oh, how this cast delivers! Nobody does sexy darkness like Angelina Jolie, who’s wonderfully typecast as Angelina Jolie, er, Fox, with her raccoon-chic, smoky-eyed, dangerous self. Although the presence of “I’m not a rapper, I’m a SAG card actor” Common (Smokin’ Aces) is little more than diverse window dressing, Morgan Freeman lends his intrinsic gravitas to the proceedings as Fraternity leader Sloan - as well as the funniest line in/coda to a speech of the summer.

Anchoring the movie with a surprisingly bulletproof Yankee accent, young Scottish heartthrob on-the-rise James McAvoy, who seems to carry all the potential talent for superstardom that James Franco missed, is a casting coup as bumbling, anxiety-stricken Wesley, a Joe Below-Average (”You apologize too much,” complains Fox dryly) who embraces a deadly, off-the-beaten-to-a-pulp path. McAvoy’s such a complete, underrated actor that his transformation from a desk jockey Dilbert to a gun-wielding Kimbo Slice feels as organic and believable as the rest of this movie is not. (I don’t care if bullets can ricochet off each other or if someone can truly shoot the wings off a fly. I DO care about seeing it, though!) McAvoy brings a knowing, sly charisma to his downtrodden, office drone mode as well as in his “I can curve bullets” lethal weapon mode. His slight frame and plain, Tom Hanksian looks gird the “Everyman as Superman” throughline of this handsome, valiant picture.

Yes, this movie looks REEL good. Stretching visual imagination to the limit, Timur and company deluge the senses with ridiculous originality. Going out on a limb here (not really): If there is any justice in the world, “Wanted” will win an Oscar for visual effects. I said to my screening partner that “Timur must be some coked out, living-in-a-crack den genius. How DOES a mind come up with this stuff???” Unlike, say, “Speed Racer,” the story in “Wanted” story demands its director keep pace with the creativity, racing through at least two climax-worthy sequences en route to a preposterously adrenaline fueled climax - AND a nice, unpredictable third act twist.

Like that last sentence, this is almost too much for one movie! Even in the face of double-digit ticket prices, this may be the rare movie where you’ll stumble out feeling like YOU owe IT money, “Wanted” so over delivers to however outsized your expectations (and I do tend to dream big).

This movie is a heapin’ helpin’ of unexpected. The starmaking, charismatic turn by McAvoy. Intensely original action scenes that defy gravity and your imagination. Morgan Freeman cussin’. My mouth was barn-dooring it throughout most of this flick - and yes, it IS a flick. Not a film, not cinema, but a hardcore, badass, (curving) bullet-to-the-brain, hard-R, action FLICK. Um, “Wanted”? Can I have my breath back now? It’s been two hours and the credits have rolled. Thank you.

I’m sorry but this movie consistently gave me “Matrix” tingles. “Wanted” may not redefine action movies, but I’ll tell you what: It certainly reinvigorates them.

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

UTC’s resident film critic Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for The 213 Magazine, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com where his new novel I DO? is available NOW.