Wanted (2008)

A young man finds out his long lost father is an assassin. When his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan to follow in his dad's footsteps. - synopsis from IMDB

Cast - full listing

Genres

action, fantasy, crime

Facts & Figures

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov.

Rated 6.7 on IMDB from 311439 votes.

Runtime: 110 min.

Review

James McAvoy has been climbing the Hollywood ranks over the last couple of years, earning him ever bigger roles. I’ve been appreciating his work since he starred as God-Emperor Leto Atreides II in Children of Dune and had the mystery and madness of the role dead on. This time around, we are treated to an action hero role besides the likes of Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Can McAvoy step up from the slightly naive personal doctor of a Ugandan dictator and flex his muscles convincingly? Most definitely, even if the script isn’t up to par.

Wanted is pushed as the next big thing in action movies and doesn’t disappoint when the action kicks in. In between I feel it falls short and there’s no real “Oh, yeah!” moment. Sure, we are served with plenty of close up shots of bullets entering various victims and witness some beautiful special effects and original stunts. The story however isn’t really that appealing and only really starts pulling rabbits from hats to the very end of the movie. Personally I also feel the music could have been better.

Fortunately, the cast makes up for these tiny flaws. Jolie and Freeman may be slightly in repeat mode from previous performances, but are good never the less and Thomas Kretschmann is always great. All in all Wanted is worth seeing, but not worth the hype it received.

Seen: 12 Sep 2008