Russian writer/director Timur Bekmambetov thrilled me with Night Watch in 2004 and sequel Day Watch in 2006.
When I saw previews of a movie called Wanted , I thought it looked strangely familiar and couldn’t put my finger on it until I looked up who was behind it. I was elated to find Bekmambetov was doing a movie for American cinema, in fact, I couldn”t wait!
All I knew walking into the theater was that it featured James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie , based on a comic book.
The plot, which does offer a nifty twist in Act III, is basically that Wesley’s (McAvoy ) father was killed by a rogue assassin from an elite assassin’s fraternity and Fox (Jolie ) is taking him under her wing and protecting him. The discovery/training sequences are overdone and frankly boring to me. Meeting Sloan (Morgan Freeman ) was kinda neat but I didn’t like him, I couldn’t figure out why. Sloan runs this branch of the fraternity, being the ‘eye of fate’ and writing death orders for his assassins to complete.
Act II teaches you there’s a giant loom that decides who has to die. Seriously. I’m not joking. Who’s the only one that’s allowed to read it? Yeah, it’s Sloan. So much for quality control.
I do understand the movie is written and directed from Russian ideals, but it disturbs me that there was never concequence for killing people, in fact, it was sensationalized and made fun of. I would have liked to see some sort of remorse or questioning if it was acceptable, etc., but I was told in the past by a well-known director that if I wanted to see movies done a certain way that I should make them myself. Mr. S. was right, of course.
Overall this was a great movie. Despite the couple dozen lines she was given, Fox was by far my favorite character, a true believer in the fraternity and the end blew my mind… and theirs… you’ll understand when you see it.
I’m not interested in a sequel, but I will get the DVD just for the director’s commentary.
This is absolutely not something to let anyone under 14 watch.
Walt Snider is a Computer Technician and Webmaster in South Florida that operates Kore New Media , the fourth largest podcast group in the world, Florida’s largest podcast group. More about Walt Snider can found at www.WaltSnider.com or on his blog at www.OffTheWalt.com . His podcasting group, Kore New Media , can be found at www.KoreNewMedia.com where he produces one of the most-listened to movie podcasts, Kore Movies at www.KoreMovies.com .
