Review: ‘Wanted’ an exhilarating summer ride

Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov

Starring: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp

Rated: R

A word of caution about “Wanted.” Don’t try and make any sense out of it. It will ruin the fun of a film that makes “The Matrix” franchise seem coherent.

Russian director Timur Bekmambetov takes a screenplay that on paper must have seemed impossible to film and creates a big dumb-fun/guilty-pleasure movie that’s perfect for the summer blockbuster season.

The writing team – Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, who wrote “3:10 to Yuma” – is a great one. The story is also credited to Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, who created the graphic novels (comic books) that first gave life to these characters and this particular milieu. The first reaction a rational viewer will have is, “Were these guys on something?”

The action is jaw-dropping – trains crash (there are a lot of trains in the film), bullets collide in mid-air, bullets enter and emerge from a number of heads, and bullets trace their way back to the barrels that fired them.

The plot, meanwhile, is nonsensical. But Bekmambetov and the writers provide an amusing back story at the opening (after a slam-bang action sequence) which gives us a sense of what the lead character’s life is like.

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) has a humdrum job as an account manager. He works in a cubicle for an overbearing woman who is constantly riding him.

Wesley’s closest cinematic relative is Edward Norton’s character in “Fight Club.” He’s a 21st century Walter Mitty-type who dreams of what he’d like to tell his boss and his supposed best friend, who is having sex with Wesley’s girlfriend. McAvoy, who starred in “Atonement” and “The Last King of Scotland,” is an engaging actor and immediately garners audience sympathy.

And Wesley’s life is about to change – in a big way.

The first hint is when he is confronted by a woman named “Fox” (the film is never subtle), played by Angelina Jolie in a role that had to be written with her in mind. Fox is sexy, uninhibited and downright scary.

Fox takes Wesley on a wild ride through Chicago, although the film was actually shot in Prague, and introduces him to a man named Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Sloan explains things, as best as things in this movie can be explained, to Wesley. There’s a thousand-year-old organization of assassins called The Fraternity who all have superhuman powers they may not even be aware of, and Wesley’s dad was one of the best. Wesley has the power, and Sloan tells him he must be trained so he can deal with the assassin who has betrayed the group and killed Wesley’s dad.

The training includes a series of brutal beatings, dealing with a fat guy who really loves knives and soaking in a wax bath. Don’t ask.

Eventually, Wesley begins to come around. He finds he has the power to bend the trajectory of bullets he fires and curves them around Fox and a pig carcass. Again, don’t ask.

One other item warrants a mention, but don’t expect an explanation. I can’t pretend I have any rational thought regarding this plot device. The Fraternity operates a huge factory that weaves fabric from cotton. By examining the slight flaws in the weave, they are able to discern the identity of the people they must kill. Really. They don’t care anything about the person, and they know that if the cotton weave says someone must die, it means many other lives will be saved. Really.

A wrinkle, so to speak, comes up in the weave system, and it’s revealed that not everything is as simple as it appears. Someone has started faking the weaves.

This film could have been completely stupid, but it’s filmed so incredibly well and the plot is so completely over the top, film aficionados of every fiber will simply have to love it.

The ending doesn’t leave a lot of open doors for a sequel, but in the twisted universe that is “Wanted,” anything can happen and doesn’t need explanation.

I loved this movie and will buy the DVD (which will, without doubt, be loaded with special content) the day it’s released. It’s a hilariously fun and exhilarating movie – a perfect summer film.

Just don’t try to understand what any of it means. And don’t buy a microscope to start examining your linens looking for clues about who needs to be assassinated. It’ll make you crazy.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.