Whoever thought that spasmodic stress is actually a symptom of superhuman strength! In many ways, Wanted reminds one of the Matrix series, in particular, the ideas of the reluctant ‘chosen one’, the slow-motion shots while a bullet travels in the air, the superhuman reflexes of the lead characters, the controlling of the mind to bend space-and-time, and the concept of easily doing the improbable.
Most folk doing office jobs live empty lives, and all the while fool themselves into believing that they’re doing something that’s truly great and important. Often, such a life includes gobbling down anxiety pills frequently to beat the stress and the people at the workplace who breathe right down their throat. They just need to be shaken out of their stupor to be woken up forever.
When Wesley (James McAvoy) discovers that he is the son of an assassin from a 1000-year-old secret, weaving society called the Fraternity and that he is the inheritor of a king’s fortune, he immediately quits his office job, and joins the gang. But the poor fellow is in for a few very painful surprises.
McAvoy has made his mark once again. Here’s a kid who’s climbing his way to the top, explosively. At first, he’s a wimp with a loser face. Then, he gets into combat mode, his eyes blaze, and all the veins in his neck protrude like they are about to burst.
Angelina Jolie as Fox, an ultra-cool gun-totter, drives a car like it’s an airplane; at one point, speaks faster than a sharpshooter can draw; and teaches McAvoy, among many other things, how to jump onto, and race on, the roof of a moving express train. Despite being hot as the lead in a firing gun, though, she does not make love to anyone.
As though to compensate for boring audiences to death in a previous film, the editor occasionally grabs your eyeballs and takes them on a lively, action trip, offering you no opportunity to blink. During some of the blood-splattering scenes, the music rocks with a peppy beat. Killing is made to sound like it’s awesomely cool and fun.
All those special effects shots of people jumping and flying through the air with blazing guns are spectacular, no doubt. But there’s something radically wrong with these super men who think and react in micro-time, and move with super speed: the moment they realize that they are standing on the bulls-eye of a sniper, they suddenly become super still.
Timur Bekmambetov’s mega thriller, despite being excessively bloody and subconsciously promoting violence, isn’t totally degenerative. It lays emphasis on the importance of values such as sacrifice, duty, righteousness. And challenges office nerds to get out of their humdrum lives, discover the exciting, and unleash their untapped uniqueness.
