Wanted - mini-review

It killed me to wait, but we were at a family reunion all weekend, and I couldn't see Wanted until Monday afternoon. So, you're wondering, was it worth the wait and the hype? Hell, yeah!

This movie is a non-stop adrenaline rush. I got a kick out of the fact it was set in Chicago, but commuters can only dream that L trains go that fast!

Angelina Jolie is just so at home in her own skin in action roles like this. Morgan Freeman, excellent as usual. But, James, oh my, James McAvoy. His performance is simply brilliant. I can't imagine anyone better in this role. He starts out the movie as this nervous nebbishy cubicle slave, and ends the movie as a total badass. He makes the transformation completely believable. I feel like he poured everything he's been in other movies into this role, at times nervous and twitchy, sometimes showing anguish and emotional pain full out there, and then his intensity which has been seen sometimes in other films is given full throttle. Just brilliant. (James has even said that he made himself pass out by unknowingly holding his breath during intense scenes.)

What I am also excited about with this movie is the director, Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian-Khazak. People have been talking about two Russian films he's made: Night Watch and Day Watch that are supposed to be out of this world. The action sequences and the colliding bullets in Wanted reminded me of my open-mouthed amazement watching the first Matrix film. You're seeing things and techniques that are new and fresh.

Timur Bekmambetov told an interviewer that his influences aren't from living in Russia, but in the USSR:

"(The Soviet Union) was a fantasy world created by one man, and his name was Stalin, and he created and controlled everything," Timur said. "How to dress, how to drink, how to talk, how to think. He was the producer."

Timur continued, "We lived for seventy years in a fantasy movie created by one person. It gave us a sensibility and the ability to believe different things. That influences your way of thinking."

I cannot wait to see what this guy comes up with next. He is definitely a creative force to watch.

Three and a half stars. See it on the big screen. It is totally kickass. With the successful opening weekend that Wanted has had, there is already talk of a sequel. Given the ending, that will be interesting. Only if you've seen the film, read this interesting article on how the ending was reshot. Major spoiler alert!