Wanted strives to be the ultimate in post-Matrix action; a gun-fu movie taken to the nth degree. It succeeds in laying the dance mat out on the floor and placing it's feet into the shadowed footprints. It gets the steps right but does so without much, if any, heart and soul. But even if calories are empty doesn't mean the snack can't taste good, right? So, despite the vacuous nature of the movie it mostly succeeds in being very entertaining. From the opening sequence through the climax and finale Wanted leaves you breathless with action scenes that are marvelously choreographed and a wonder to behold. The CGI FX are especially impressive, never attaining that cartoonish look that plagues some movies and more then once I was impressed with what I saw.

One of the best things about the movie was that it was unexpectedly funny, a trait that didn't really come through in the comic. Some of the lines just needed that acerbic stress that only a well timed vocal delivery can bring. But there were also different types of humorous situations employed. For example, the theatre was sold out for the viewing and one of the funniest parts, and most well received, was one single line, punctuated with the word "mother fucker". Coming from most this would have been something we've seen a thousand times before, a character facing the barrel of a gun with bravado. But this joke played on viewers expectations because it was the venerable Morgan Freeman delivering the line. The success of the delivery was contingent upon our understanding the he doesn't normally cuss in movies. The theatre erupted and the joke was a success.

The stripped masculinity and changing roles of cast aside men in society has been a central theme in the work of Chuck Paluniuk for more then a decade and similar territory is tread in Wanted. So simply put the white collar office angst and Ikea joke were already done and done better. So this element of Wanted doesn't have the resonance that it strives for. Instead we try and shake our heads of the deja vu feeling and remind ourselves that it isn't Edward Norton that we are watching up on the screen. What we mostly take away from these office scenes is cheap laughs. With all of that said though one of the most satisfying moments of the movie was when Wesley quit his job and confronts his domineering boss and back stabbing best friend. It was a clear example of the emotional manipulation of the audience but it was an effective one and so ultimately successful

Wolf and sheep are mentioned throughout the movie but Wanted eventually subverts one of the central modern symbols for the herd animal; the rat. Wesley is an emasculated cube rat at the start of the movie and the final kiss-off of that life isn't the day he quits but during the climax where he uses an invasion of rats (literally) to storm the castle to overcome the wolves. Its a striking and un-subtle visual metaphor that strives for depth. But given the fate of the army of rats and the rapid ascension of Wesley's station in life the complexity of the metaphor is undermined.

In short, Wanted is riddled with thin characters and a mystical story that requires a healthy suspension of disbelief but is well worth your summer movie dollars as a fun (and funny) make-things-go-boom movie.

Sandra watched Wanted as well and her take was a little more positive then mine. Her review can be found here