Chris Kavan's Movie Review of Wanted (2008)

I Got What I Wanted
Chris Kavan - wrote on 06/28/08

This has all the elements for a perfect summer film: lots of action, sexy characters, plenty of attitude, humor, stunning revelations (that you may or may not see coming), great special effects and an insane yet likable story.

Wanted shows you what life would be like if an ordinary drone (namely you, the target audience) suddenly found themselves part of something amazing - in this case a 1000-year-old guild of crazy-good assassins. Needless to say, this involves lots of violence and blood, fast car chases and exploding rats (yes, PETA must really be upset this time - thought they are of the CGI variety). Of course, if Angelina Jolie were my trainer, I would do everything in my power to become master assassin too.

You don't go into these kind of movies for deep story or plot, but Wanted manages to take a completely implausible idea and make it at least semi-believable. At least the real-life part of the movie is completely acceptable - it's like Office Space. The assassin part not so much, but it's sure fun to watch.

We don't get too much insight into the characters, a hint dropped here, a story told there, but we get to know enough to care about the main characters. Speaking of which, I guarantee you'll never look at Morgan Freeman the same way again after you hear him drop the F-bomb. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about - right now it stands at THE line of the summer and it's going to be a hard one to top.

You can't describe the effects without mentioning the Matrix. The slo-mo action evokes pleasant memories from a time when the Wachowski brothers were respected. Is it too early for special effects nostalgia? Anyway, despite borrowing a few ideas, they manage to make the old seem new again, and that's enough for me.

This is pretty much the ultimate summer movie: babes, bullets and blood. Don't know if there's much room for a sequel, but if they do you can count me in.