This is the second of three movies we saw today. And it was good for what it is.
Yes, it is a comic book adaptation, but that shouldn't be held against it. It is quite different from the Millar/Jones miniseries. Only a small part of the book made it to the screen.
I blame the need in Hollywood to have characters you can root for as the hero in every single film. In the comic, there is not one single redeemable quality found in any character. Every one of them are scumbags.
Here, they are assassins instead of supervillains (and almost all the comic book tropes have been removed) but they only kill the people who deserve it. "Kill one to save a thousand" is the motto.
Personally, I think the changes improve the movie over the comic. The comic was Millar being as over-the -top as he could be, aiming for shock value but hitting it so often that the reader became numb to it. Yet, the story was rather plain.
The movie was better. Not that there weren't holes in the plot you could sail an aircraft carrier through. Things that if you thought to much about them, that they would make sense.
Butm if you could turn your brain off and weren't afraid of a little gore (because this flick had BUCKETS of blood), then you should enjoy yourself. The stunt work is visually impressive and imaginative. If you are an action movie fan, then there is eye candy galore.
Good acting from Jolie and Freeman. Especially Jolie, whose character is the most well defined. McAvoy was annoying at times, even when his character wasn't supposed to be.
Bottom line: goiod popcorn flick, high art in the stunts category, but no Oscar winner.
My thoughts?
ReplyDeleteHaving been one of those who has read the comic the film is based on, I can say that it remains fairly true to the spirit of the comic, if not the actually story points within it. But that might not be such a good thing, in this case.
The action in "Wanted" is of a high-caliber quality, as one would expect of such films as this today. But as with the comic itself, it suffers from some of the very same flaws. A forgettable plot, unsympathetic (or simply pathetic) characters, and an ending that is simply an annoying letdown.
The first half of the film is pretty much chapter and verse of the comic, while the second half is a complete deviation. One would have thought that doing that might make the story here more interesting than the comic version. However, it simply ends up being a Freudian mind-screw, as they attempt to play "what you thought you knew was true, is really a lie" type stuff. And it isn't pulled off with great affect, as other movies (ala, "The Matrix") have done in recent times.
Angelina Jolie seems to be on auto-pilot the whole film, as she attempts to play up being sexy and dangerous. There's nothing new in her performance and she's done the same type of character much better in other films (such as, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"). James McAvoy starts out as pathetically annoying, then graduates to being a cocky jackass. Morgan Freeman never really pulls off the whole "evil mastermind" quality his character is supposed to have. Even all the minor and supporting characters, like the nagging boss (played by Lorna Scott), the cheating girlfriend (played by Kristen Hager) and the two-faced best friend (played by Chris Pratt) are completely vile and disgusting. Simply put, there isn't a character in the movie that has a redeeming quality among them, save Thomas Kretschmann's and he gets very little screen time to show us. It must be spelled out to us by other characters (whom we don't care about). There is a certain "fantasy fulfillment" here, for anyone who's been stuck in a job they hate, or in a relationship with someone who doesn't care about them, and they dream for the day they can exact some retribution, but with little to no emotional investment in any of the characters here, it feels really hollow.
The action sequences I mentioned earlier, though, are top-drawer. Granted there isn't much in the way of innovative feeling and originality in them. If you've seen films like "The Matrix" and "Sniper" (the 1993 film), you'll have seen pretty much all of this before. But, like a well-trained dance troupe, the choreography of violence and action is exciting and fun to behold. So, fans of great action scenes will get the fix they probably crave from this.
In the end, this is merely a decent action film, without much of any substance or characters you come to feel anything for. They are all very unsympathetic and how they meet their fates leaves you feeling empty and indifferent. Which, by the way, is not unlike how you'll feel reading the comic version. This film is a rare case, where further deviation from the source material might have actually helped make the story better. Regardless, if you have a couple hours to burn, don't mind watching characters you don't care about committing lots of horrible acts on other characters you equally don't care about, as copious amounts of action take place, this film will do you right. Just don't expect it to be high in the re-watchable category. It is visually dazzling, but quickly forgettable.