This obviously contains SPOILERS so if you haven´t seen this movie DON´T READ THIS

Wanted is the name of the newest action-flick by Timur Bekmambetov, who also directed Night Watch and its sequels. Starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and a rather unknown James McAvoy.
The cast is okay and cinema trailers promised an over-the-top nobrainer comparable to Crank or Shoot´em up so i decided to give it a try and was rather disappointed.

The movie goes right off full-speed with what is its best action scene in which a guy jumps through a window from one skyscraper to the other, kills four thugs and gets a headshot from 50 miles away. Yeah.
Next, our main character, Wesley, is introduced and we get some generic "I work in a cubicle, my life is boring and everyone abuses me" exposition that is just like Fight Club minus the cleverness.
Suddenly Angelina Jolie pops up and starts a bombastic car chase but unfortunately I had already seen every cool scene of that car chase in the trailer.

Now in the second part of the movie the protagonist joins "The Fraternity", a group of highly-trained assassins who are in possession of a magical loom that prints out names in binary code and then they kill those people (because!!) and this is just so ridicolous I want to go home.
Anyway instead of the action I was expecting, Bekmambetov does a long, long training scene that is exactly like in Matrix, only longer and Wesley learns how to shoot bullets around obstacles.
The best part of this where he nearly shoots Jolie in the face but oh wonder it´s the first time he manages his little trick, unfortunately it was already in the trailer so it was boring.
Finally Wesley is also a highly trained assassin, which means that the superior action and long gunfight scenes where people shoot bullets around pillars a lot can finally start, but instead there are only two very short scenes in which Wesley shoots... someone.

Then he gets shot by the guy who killed his father and from the bullet in his arm he knows he must go to somewhere in Europe. There he chases that guy in a train with hundreds of people including Wesley and Angelina Jolie in it until the train falls down a cliff but noone seems to care. The movie cuts right from both main characters falling down like 500ft, to the protagonist sitting in the bathroom of his father, with a grey-haired friend of his father. So obviously that old guy climbed down the cliff and rescued him, it´s not explained. The movie makes bad transitions like that all the time but this one really sticks out as bad writing.

Anyway, now a plot twist is revealed and Wesley realizes that the leader of the Fraternity is a bad guy, so he has to kill every single person in the Fraternity´s hideout. There are a whole lot of people but he only brings two handguns, so there is a huge gunfight inside the factory hall and Wesley kills everyone and never gets hit and everytime his gun is empty he just takes one from a dead or living enemy. You know, the exact same scene you already saw in Matrix, Shoot´em up or Equilibrium. There is nothing special about it, if I remember correctly he doesn´t even use his superpower once.
Wait, I didn´t mention how before that gunfight Wesley blows half the hideout up with a horde of suicide bombing rats.
After the gunfight the main guys of the Fraternity all stand in a circle around Wesley but instead of just shooting him they let him do a monologue that inspires Angelina Jolie to shoot a bullet that goes full circle killing everyone including herself. And some scenes later Wesley shoots Morgan Freeman, the end.

That movie was such a disappointment. I loved Crank and Shoot´em up, because in such movies, it feels like the director is sitting right next to you, giving you high-five because of the awesome stuff the guys in the movie pull off, but in this case it was the exact opposite. I felt like the movie was laughing at me. More than half of the really good scenes already were in the trailer, for gods sake why? For every cool scene in this movie there is a boring and/or ridicolous part of story or something that just makes you wish for a fast-forward-button.
All the other cool action flicks have something cool and innovative: the heart-stuff in Crank, or killing people with freaking carrots, or the damn Matrix. This movie introduced curving bullets, which is an unimpressive superpower to begin with, but then it´s never used anyway.
Too much time went by explaining ridicolous story parts. Seriously, a Loom?

I would still give Wanted 4 out of 10 because if I hadn´t seen the trailer I would have liked it better. It still has decent action, but not enough, it lacks innovation and the story and morals are weak.

I suppose I do agree with your review to some extent. I really don't think this film deserves as much common praise as it has received, not necessarily from critics, but just from other people and amateur reviews I have read/heard.

The first 45 minutes of the film does reek something horrible of a Fight Club rip off. Don't get me wrong, Fight Club was an amazing film, but this is practically the same starting scenario but not done to anywhere near the same standard.

All the action was entertaining and exhilarating to a degree, but I really didn't like how they put a man jumping between two sky scrapers and bending bullets round corners down to over active adrenal glands. I mean I don't have to have staunch realism in a film to enjoy it but come on! That is taking the Michael a little bit as far as I'm concerned.

I think a 4/10 may be a bit harsh though because this film was by no means boring or bad. Probably a 5, pushing a 6/10 from me. Just about average because of a few niggling flaws and an original concept for a story that was executed poorly by the director and writers, with very un-original and ridiculous action scenes as you pointed out.

I loved Crank, but Shoot 'Em Up was far too occupied in convoluted plot to let me enjoy any of the really badass action.

If I were to summarize your review in one word, I would have to use "rant". It offers far too many spoilers, and you only critique the film systematically from one major scene or plot point to the next. When I finished reading it, I didn't really get a sense of cohesion, as stupid as that probably sounds.

Personally, I try to factor out trailers because they almost always detract from the feature film experience.

It may be a rant, but I do agree.

Don't bother seeing it; you aren't missing much.

Angelina Jolie always looks unhealthy i dont understand why so many find her attractive

I'm afraid I don't agree with you at all, it doesn't sound like you appreciated the movie in the spirit in which it was made, it was meant to be an off the wall, crazy and ridiculous action movie with a little comedy on the side.

If you go to see a comedy you don't judge it because it's not as serious as a political thriller, and in this case you can't judge Wanted because it's not as deep and serious as the Matrix.

I don't understand how you could possibly misunderstand the movie, didn't the exploding watch rats give you even a little inkling this wasn't supposed to be serious action movie?

Now I could say you didn´t understood my review because I compare Wanted to Shoot´em up and Crank all the time, both of which are very good crazy off-the-wall action movies.
Wanted lacked innovation. It had good scenes. The keyboard-facesmash for example. The rats were also cool, but by that time the movie had already lost my interest.

ThePlasmatizer:
I'm afraid I don't agree with you at all, it doesn't sound like you appreciated the movie in the spirit in which it was made, it was meant to be an off the wall, crazy and ridiculous action movie with a little comedy on the side.

If you go to see a comedy you don't judge it because it's not as serious as a political thriller, and in this case you can't judge Wanted because it's not as deep and serious as the Matrix.

I don't understand how you could possibly misunderstand the movie, didn't the exploding watch rats give you even a little inkling this wasn't supposed to be serious action movie?

The problem is, Pineapple Express would then fit into the same genre as Wanted, and I enjoyed Pineapple Express more.

Has anyone noticed how no matter how skeletal Jolie gets, her trout lips stay exactly the same size?

isn't Angelina Jolie pregant? or am i going mad?

I wasn't a big fan of this review. Aside from my personal conflicting level of enjoyment, it's more of a summary of the entire movie that include a few pieces of commentary. I think you need to focus more on what you like/disliked about individual parts of the movie while leaving the plot a little more generalized.

I think you are right. I need to work on that.

I hated this movie, and always enjoy anyone bashing on it. But this is just saying what happened basically, rather than what you thought of it.

Personnaly this review was just a summary of what happened in the film rather than acctually giving your opinion.

It would benefit your review if you gave some points in the film which you liked/disliked, and then give some reasons WHY you did/didn't like it. This then gives the reader a much better understanding whether they would like the film or not

What I want to know is why I would read a review on something I've already seen.

I have to say, I like this review. Plus, when you see an incredibly bad film, its always good to hear a good rant about it...

I agree with the title. Every shot that was supposed to frame Jolie as sexy was scary. She's refugee skinny in this movie.

I didn't like her in this film. She didn't fit the role.

I like the bit were James McCavoys character hits his "best friend" in the face with a keyboard

The comic book was even worse. It broke the 4th wall to tell the reader to rape and murder people for no reason. The character calls everybody sheep (and large number or racist, sexist, homophobic slurs) and then blindly follows his new boss. The book makes no separation of standing up to people oppressing you and oppressing other people.

The main character is the most unlikable protagonist I have seen in any media. That includes Grand Theft Auto and the book American Psycho.

His super power didn't make sense. If he could move in bullet time, how does the gun reload so fast. Does the gun get super speed too?

One more thing, it ends with the protagonist threating to prison rape you after insulting you.

Uhh...I think you missed the point of the comic. The bad guys win. EVERYONE in it is a bad guy, including the protagonist. That's the point. He's supposed to be an alpha bastard.

TaboriHK:
Uhh...I think you missed the point of the comic. The bad guys win. EVERYONE in it is a bad guy, including the protagonist. That's the point. He's supposed to be an alpha bastard.

I think that was the most entertaining part of the movie. There wasn't really any good guy, at least in the traditional Shining Knight (tm) way.

It's one of those movies that you can enjoy only if you turn off your brain. Unfortunately, the 'magic loom that uses binary' was just too much even for that. I mean...really? It doesn't fit with the movie at all. You could have made the Fraternity be a hired gun that doesn't care about who they take down, or you could have had them be some sort of "philanthropic" group taking out who they thought should be taken out. But noooo...we have a bunch of cloth encoding a binary message.

There are few different approaches when creating a story with a villainous protagonist

1. have the villain represent a societal evil. (American Psycho)

2. Shift the story away from the characters evil activities (The Godfather is "about family" not the Mafia)

3. Have the character be a joke. (Dr Horrible)

4. Have the character be morally ambiguous (Sleeper, a way better and more obscure comic)

5. give the character a rise a fall or slowly drawn into crime (The Goodfellas)

6. Give the character redeeming qualities (The Hood, Criminal:Coward)

7. Have the character and the audience have something in common, usually a fight with "the man." (A Clockwork Orange)

A character being a asshole thought the entire book is just annoying. There's no reason for him to hurt people. He just does. It's really annoying when the characters insult the audience.

In America, 1 in 3 women will get raped during their lifetime.
Wanted tells the reader to rape women. It implies the only proper relation between men and women is for men to rape women and flat out crosses the line.

Publishing this just seems like a bad idea. Top Cow should be (and are)allowed to publish it but I urge people not to buy this crap and buy Villains United or Criminal instead.

In America, 1 in 3 women will get raped during their lifetime.
Wanted tells the reader to rape women. It implies the only proper relation between men and women is for men to rape women and flat out crosses the line.

Then don't read fiction. It's a high horse mentality you're sporting right now, same one that the anti-gaming crowd uses when suggesting that GTA turns us into amoral serial killers. You don't like a jerk character? That's fine? But don't try to say that it's "irresponsible." It's an adult comic, if you read it and think, "hmmm....should I rape women?" then you have no place in society.

I enjoyed the movie and found it entertaining.

The concept of assassins will always interest people.

If I hate a Movie I just pretend I didn't watch it...Life is to short there will be plenty of better movies