WANTED

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Stars: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, Common, Chris Pratt

Year: 2008

Rating: R

I really wanted to like this film. BIG fan of James McAvoy (and boy, if you are too will THIS be a departure for you, from him). BIG fan of Morgan Freeman and Thomas Kretschmann and Terence Stamp. Heck, I can even deal with Angelina Jolie in a role like this.

But even an action flick about assassins, complete with guns and gore, eye-bending special effects and an Angelina Jolie butt-shot, should still (in this reviewer's opinion) take the time to at least partially develop a few characters you care about. This is Wanted's biggest weakness, and why the film failed for me, big time.

James McAvoy stars was Wesley Gibson, an accounts manager in a nondescript office in Chicago who is letting life run him, instead of the other way around. In fact, we're treated to so much over-the-top abuse heaped onto the inactive Wesley's slim shoulders - a belittling, verbally-abusive boss, a whiny ex-girlfriend, and a coworker/best friend whose banging Wesley's girlfriend on the side (with Wesley's knowledge), that it's kind of hard to even like a guy who puts up with that much sh*t in his life at once. Wesley lives in a tiny, grungy little apartment near some very loud train tracks, normally can't even get as much as $20 out of the ATM when he needs it, and even has abandonment issues via a father who left home when Wesley was very little.

The film opens with an impressive and violent action sequence, of an assignation by a hired killer that goes wrong when the assassin himself is killed at the end. After our intro to the downtrodden Wesley, the action picks up again when Wesley's in a mom and pop grocery store, and suddenly finds himself confronting a rather severe-looking (and heavily tattooed) Angelina Jolie, who informs Wesley that his father is dead and the guy who killed him is stalking Wesley now. Thinking the woman's crazy, Wesley laughs her off ... just as she pushes him to the ground as the gunfire erupts; the man who killed the hired killer in the opening scene, named Cross (Kretschmann) has indeed been following Wesley, and he and Angelina Jolie's character (named Fox, evidently 'cause she is one) have a massive shootout and chase scene, through the streets of Chicago, that is full of crashes and impossible stunts and some pretty cool special effects.

Fox gets away with a freaked-out Wesley, and ends up taking him back to a textile mill just outside the city - a textile mill that's actually a front for The Fraternity, an elite group of assassins who kills for the sake of righting wrongs in society. There, Wesley's introduced to Sloan (Morgan Freeman), the leader of this branch of The Fraternity, who informs him that Cross is a former Fraternity member who went rogue and is now killing off Fraternity members and trying to dissolve the organization permanently. He killed Wesley's father, and now has Wesley targeted so that he can't be trained as a replacement.

It takes awhile, but soon Wesley has no choice but to believe what he's hearing - and he does, indeed, go through an intensive training that mainly involves getting the crap kicked out of him at every turn, no matter what he does, presumably to make him stronger. His anger level and strength both rise, and he's finally able to quit his job (telling his boss where to go) and leave both his cheating girlfriend and backstabbing best buddy ... deciding to train with the Fraternity until he's ready to take down the man who killed his father.

Of course there is a big, "shocking" twist that turns the film around in a new direction - and in the meantime, viewers are treated to more violence, gore, bloodshed and killing (oh yeah, and Angelina Jolie's naked butt). And yes, more special effects and action designed as eye candy - which, in fact, in some cases it genuinely is.

But my problem is that I didn't give a hoot for Wesley, or Fox or Sloan, or petty much anyone in the picture. I've seen plenty of action films where character development and deep plotting either took a backseat or were practically non-existent at all ... but here, McAvoy's character came off as a whiny, sniveling and spineless jellyfish - so much so, when he's suddenly trained into almost action-hero status, it was completely unbelievable to me. Angelina Jolie has a tragic backstory that's revealed maybe halfway or more into the film, but her character is so glacial that by then I could feel no sympathy for her. Even Morgan Freeman seems to be delivering his lines on automatic pilot, with little of anything you could call a "performance" in his work here.

In short, I just didn't care what happened to these characters - and if you don't buy into at least a couple of the characters in a film emotionally (and yes, even in an action flick - such as Die Hard or Terminator, where you do grow to care about who survives and who doesn't), the film falls flat.

Sadly, that's what happened to me with Wanted - a film I "wanted" so badly to enjoy, but just couldn't. ** - Reel Mediocre