WANTED (2008): Out of the rat-race anyone?
December 7th 2008 13:44
Category: No Category
Boasting an appealing cast of A-listers like Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy (recently seen in Atonement and The Last King of Scotland) assembled from opposite sides of the pond and topped by an exotic Russian director, Timur Bekmambetov, whose Night Watch (2004) was a breath of fresh air for fantasy cinema lovers world wide, Wanted has a potentially winning formula. Unfortunately the Hollywood focus on high-concept and surface gleamings of meaning at its best leads to predictable results ad nauseam. Let’s get straight to the big black hole at the centre of this comic book-inspired concoction (after the work of Mark Millar and J. G. Jones): a 1000 year old “Fraternity of Assassins” (does anybody else out there think this is an oxymoron?) is busy reading fate out of bits of weaved cloth, which tell them who to eliminate next and thus keep universal chaos at bay. If you can swallow that chunk of inanity, there is some cynical, blood-splattered action fun to be had... After their star assassin is killed by a rogue player, the Fraternity recruits and gruelingly trains the office push-over Wesley (McAvoy) to replace him. Fox (Jolie) is in charge of that (any push-over’s wet dream, surely), while Sloan (Freeman) oversees the proceedings, occasionally imparting adages of wisdom. Watch out for the fly wings nicely arranged on his hand when he makes a point. While Wesley appreciates an opportunity to escape from cubicle hell, he is confused by the constant beatings, breakneck speed (in The Matrix-wannabe style) and the randomness and absurdity of it all. So are we.
On the upbeat side, an ultra-annoying boss gets impressively told off, there are chases galore arranged in the (obligatory for the genre) perpetual spectacular gloom of Chicago and Prague, and we even get to see not only all of Angelina’s tattoos, which apparently did not require hiding under layers of make-up for this part, but also her bottom (too thin here for my taste, but to each his own). Oh, there’s also a cameo by Terence Stamp, reliably stone-faced (he was the unforgettable Bernadette in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).
Angelina's tattoo's hit the spotlight in Wanted
Brick-weight messages of the type “fundamentalism is bad” and “power corrupts” are hammered into the audience – hey, they come included in the price of the ticket – and we get to see almost as many rats as in Willard (2003), which is to say too many. In a recent interview with Andrew Denton, Angelina admitted she hasn’t in fact seen the finished film and no wonder. It probably felt like a replay of Tomb Raider movies to her. If we go to the cinema only to look at Angelina, it begs the question where does the poor thing get her fill of escapism? Possibly Bekmambetov’s eagerly awaited third installment in the Night Watch series, Twilight Watch, which is still in the making - while Hollywood holds the director captive.
Review by Patricia Bieszk
© Copyright P. Bieszk 2008
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