Movie Review- Wanted

I saw Wanted last night with GG. As she commented it was our first date like thing that we had done except for dinners, of course, which was very cool for us. Wanted is the story of a man who is stuck in an office job that he hates and a life that he is dissatisfied with and one day discovers that his father, that he never knew, was an assassin for a secret organization. This is obviously a high action film with plot holes, events that defy logic and physics and much violence. It is a film in the post-Matrix era where special effects are paramount and amazing at times. The film also hearkens back to some Greek and Norse mythology which from looking on imdb.com, some people are not getting at all. It is a popcorn flick, not a movie that requires a lot of thought, but one that is very enjoyable.

Timur Bekmambetov directed this film. Bekmambetov also directed Night Watch and Day Watch, two films that I really really like. If you have seen either in the Night Watch/Day Watch series this film is very reminiscent of those films. The secret organization was formed a thousand years ago and was developed to fight evil. There are also nods at mythology as I have mentioned and as with the really great subtitles in Night Watch, demonstrate at times, he has objects that have words on them as a way of reinforcing or adding to the effect. One of the best examples of this from Wanted is that toward the beginning of the movie, Wes Gibson, the protagonist, played by James McAvoy hits someone with a key board and as the pieces of the keyboard are flying around at one point the words Fuck You are spelled out by keys from the key board and a tooth. I found the film to be really interesting and engaging. Yes, there are plot holes and jumps in logic at times and yes it does remind me, at times, of other films like Night Watch, Day Watch, and The Matrix, but it is an action film. I don't go to see those to really have to think a lot or to expect to see an entirely new concept. As has been said before, there are only so many good ideas in the world and they have all been used by now.

If you like action films and the films of Bekmambetov, I would recommend this film. If you have never seen Night Watch of Day Watch, I even more highly recommend you see those films.