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This movie is a well-made pimple of a film - pretty to look at but essentially hateful and filed with bile.
Like 1997's Falling Down, WANTED is one long scream of frustrated middle class white male rage: Wesley Gibson is a 30ish guy with a soul-sucking job and a cheating girlfriend who, along with his fat, female boss, seeks to emasculate him at every turn, reducing his God-given alpha-maleness into a pathetic joke.
Poor Wesley, born free and everywhere in chains.
Lucky for him, Wesley Gibson is about to be rescued from his humdrum, downtrodden existence by The Fraternity, an ancient order of assassins, in the person of Angelina Jolie, who proceeds to beat the ever-loving shit out of Wesley until he (he-)mans up and steps up to the plate of his destiny - to save the world by killing lots of people in super-stylized slo-motion.
And as with Falling Down, once you get past the male wish-fulfillment angle, WANTED is as empty as the center of a doughnut. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has a distinct visual style that's instantly familiar to anyone who's seen his Russian duology, Nightwatch and Daywatch. Otherwise, he directs with all the sensitivity of soul of a Russian oligarch. That is to say, none at all: all women and minorities are untrustworthy bitches and only our noble, white male hero comes out of the movie with his integrity intact.
As with any pimple, the best thing to do with WANTED is to leave it alone and let it just fade away.
Like 1997's Falling Down, WANTED is one long scream of frustrated middle class white male rage: Wesley Gibson is a 30ish guy with a soul-sucking job and a cheating girlfriend who, along with his fat, female boss, seeks to emasculate him at every turn, reducing his God-given alpha-maleness into a pathetic joke.
Poor Wesley, born free and everywhere in chains.
Lucky for him, Wesley Gibson is about to be rescued from his humdrum, downtrodden existence by The Fraternity, an ancient order of assassins, in the person of Angelina Jolie, who proceeds to beat the ever-loving shit out of Wesley until he (he-)mans up and steps up to the plate of his destiny - to save the world by killing lots of people in super-stylized slo-motion.
And as with Falling Down, once you get past the male wish-fulfillment angle, WANTED is as empty as the center of a doughnut. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has a distinct visual style that's instantly familiar to anyone who's seen his Russian duology, Nightwatch and Daywatch. Otherwise, he directs with all the sensitivity of soul of a Russian oligarch. That is to say, none at all: all women and minorities are untrustworthy bitches and only our noble, white male hero comes out of the movie with his integrity intact.
As with any pimple, the best thing to do with WANTED is to leave it alone and let it just fade away.
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