Wanted - the review (From Surrey Comet)

Wanted - the review

4:17pm Tuesday 24th June 2008

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WANTED - Three stars
Ok, think Matrix meets Fight Club. There, that got your attention.
I did mention on my previous comments that I had an idea of what this film would be like from watching the trailers but I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt.
Basically we have our main protagonist Wes (James McAvoy) an out and out loser whose life is going nowhere.
He works as an account manager in a mundane job in his small cubical surrounded by work colleagues who have no time for him, a best friend who is cheating with his girlfriend behind his back and an obese loud mouthed boss who makes his life a misery.
I must say James McAvoy does a very passable American accent.
While Wes is at the local drug store buying his weekly stress relief tablets he meets Fox, a mysterious sexy lady - enter Angelina Jolie.
After shooting up the drug store and half of the city, all in slow motion to a rock track, she introduces him to her boss Sloan (Morgan Freeman) who informs Wes that he is the ‘one’..sorry I meant to say he has special abilities which he can use to avenge the murder of his estranged father played by another Scottish actor David O’Hara who was in Braveheart but then again who wasn’t? From this point Wes’s life is never the same again (sound familiar?) and he is indoctrinated and trained to the high fighting skills to become part of a group of assassins called the ‘Fraternity’, a secret society set up 1,000 years ago by weavers.

Yes, weavers as in looms.


http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/_images/misc/Blog/wanted_poster_resized.jpg


Now I’m no prude and like to watch an action movie with its fair share of ‘shoot em up’ violence but I must admit I found some of the masochistic training ritual hard to watch.
The special effects though are fantastic, which you come to expect these days and they just keep pushing the boundaries.
Although there is a weird scene with a few hundred CGI rats that was a bit odd!
However, look out for the set piece fight with Wes and baddie Cross (Thomas Kretschman) on a fast moving train through the mountains and over a dodgy bridge, it’s really well done.
Look out for Thomas Kretschman the obvious lovechild of Daniel Crag and Liam Neeson, I think we are going to see a lot more of him.
He played the captain of the ill-fated expedition in King Kong who saved the whole team from certain death -twice!
Don’t get me wrong, the movie will do well and after all I have given it 3 stars for entertainment value. However, here’s a big but.
I couldn’t help thinking I had seen it all before.
I felt like a bit of a party pooper when the film finished and most of the audience (pretty much all media people) cheered and clapped.
I half expected to be found out as an outsider and have the whole audience stand and point their finger at me with their outstretched arm and crazed look on their face while their gapping mouth emits a haunting scream! If you haven’t seen ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ then that last gag is completely wasted.
I really wanted (no pun intended) to like it more than I did.
And by the way Morgan Freeman, what happened to you man? You use to be so cool, now you’re all about playing stereotype characters!
Having said all that I still advise you to go and see it.
It will take you away from all the misery in the real world and what the hell, Angelina Jolie is in it.