Like most avid movie goers, I went into the summer with several “must see” titles of my list. Along with about nine million other Americans, I saw “Wall-E” opening weekend. And along with a lesser numerical statistic I saw “Get Smart” a couple weeks ago – which surprisingly turned out to be very good. Looking beyond these humorous and family-oriented titles, I have to take a moment and pay some attention to a movie that I – until a week ago – had no knowledge of its existence. That’s right – I’m talking about “Wanted”. With a hasty spur-of-the-moment decision, my cousin and I were whisked away to a nearby movie theatre last Saturday night to see this amazingly bizarre and over-the-top movie. Two hours later…we exited the building breathing rather heavily and with slightly sweaty underarms.
Where does one begin when reviewing a movie such as this? To put it into an easy-to-understand visual metaphor, watching “Wanted” is like loading a shotgun with the first “Matrix” movie and using it to skeet shoot airborne Molotov cocktails filled with a deadly concoction of gasoline and Quentin Tarantino movies. The end result: pure insanity that is borderline genius. Part of me is hesitant to openly admit I thought “Wanted” was an amazing summer movie because such a statement is bound to raise a few skeptical eyebrows. Yes, this movie wholly deserves the R rating: language, violence, blood and gore, sexuality, language again, and some more violence just to top it off. There really isn’t anything in this movie that “Plugged-In” can say provides wholesome movie material to the viewer – and by “wholesome” I mean worthy of a non-secular audience. I think the producers of “Wanted” purposefully wanted to release the movie the same week as “Wall-E” so that overly masculine fathers could slip away while the rest of the family went on a cosmic journey with an adorable little robot (Waaaaaaall-E).
Regardless of that, “Wanted” just about breaks every traditional boundary of the standard action flick. While slowing down flying bullets to produce that sweet “He’s the One…” experience is still eye-catching today, the reality of the matter is Neo and Morpheus have been around for a while. There’s really no move they can pull that we haven’t already gawked at before. However, “Wanted” decides to up the ante: you get an overhaul of “bullet-time” with several interesting “newer” camera angles – not to mention a few reversed sequences that allow you to see the bullet’s trajectory after the unfortunate character has been shot (as if we need another example of “Wanted” absurdness). The insanity continues until a climactic finale in which the main protagonist, Wesley, racks up a killcount that nears the population of Rhode Island. All the while, my cousin and I were struggling to not yell out our favorite FPS Doug one-liners (linkage at the bottom; view with caution?).
OK -- time to wrap this up. "Wanted" gets a fairly awesome score in my book. I think giving it 3/4 stars is generous while not being too stingy. If there's one thing "Wanted" fails at doing well it would have to be the plot. There's that clichéd "You killed my father, prepare to die!" motif sprinkled throughout which doesn't do much for me. To make matters worse, there's a twist at the end that seems very rushed and can be slightly confusing for those who have been spending too much time staring at Angelina Jolie and not enough time piecing together the story. Notice how I've waited until the end of the article to mention Ms. Jolie -- that's because, while she is in fact the movie's box office cover girl, she plays a very secondary role to Morgan Freeman and this "Wesley" character that I'm too lazy to search for on IMDb to find his real name.
Bottom line: "Wanted" deserves your attention if you're a fan of outlandish violence and crude humor. If you're into novelty movies from Tarantino and Rodriquez, you'll most likely walk away satisfied. Otherwise, stay clear from "Wanted" unless you want a lethal overdose of epic.
Non-relevant references:
FPS Doug:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
IMDb:
http://www.imdb.com/
Plugged-In Online:
http://www.pluggedinonline
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