The official "The critics love Wanted" thread

[Antonello Blueberry]

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=133072

Wanted (18)

Watch The Trailer (View all trailers and clips)
Plot
Downtrodden office drone Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) is shaken out of his dull life by Fox (Jolie), a super-assassin who reveals that he is heir to the skills of a master hitman and has a predestined place in the Fraternity, a secret society who preserve civilisation through murder.
Review

Many action movies, comic books and geek-appeal TV shows are fantasies of empowerment. Protagonists from Luke Skywalker through Peter Parker and Buffy Summers to Harry Potter are mistaken for dullards by everyone in their lives. They are whisked out of their ruts by magical mentors, who induct them into secret universes where they inherit a legacy of heroism (along with an arch-enemy or two), can take their pick of the cool toys (mostly fast vehicles and big weapons) and get to marry (or at least cop-off with) the princess or prince of their choice. Wanted fits that template, but, like the Mark Millar-J. G. Jones comic books on which it is based, takes things further, treading a tricky path between ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ and ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

Here, a whiny loser gets access to sports cars, guns that shoot round corners and a tattooed Angelina Jolie, and takes his place in a battle between good and evil without necessarily caring about the body count. Our hero, Wesley (James McAvoy), endures arduous training which brings out his latent near-superhuman abilities, and executes his first missions. However, Cross (Thomas Kretschmann), a Fraternity renegade, is out to eliminate him, and Sloan (Morgan Freeman), the order’s master, keeps back vital information about Wesley’s father and his own plans.

The comic was set against a parody of DC’s universe, which became our own miserable world when analogues of Lex Luthor, The Joker, Fu Manchu, Catwoman and every other villain in popular literature clubbed together to get rid of the heroes and remake it in their own image. Audiences who whined that Batman Returns was ‘too dark’ or Hulk ‘too intelligent’ are clearly not ready for anything that grim, so this clever adaptation dispenses with the alien robots, living piles of ****, and killer Bizarro. Instead, the backstory is an equally complex, surprisingly satisfying secret history which seems a logical growth from Russian director Timur Bekmambetov’s Night Watch and Day Watch. A thousand years ago, an order of weavers began to receive coded messages indicating targets to eliminate for the good of humanity, and now their descendants are the best, apparently most ethical, assassins in the world.

Bekmambetov’s Watch films competed with Hollywood and Hong Kong in their imaginative action scenes. Here, with an American studio budget, he has as much destructive fun as his hero - we get fights, chases, crashes, murders and assaults involving flipped-over sports cars, speeding trains, skyscrapers, and a castle. Unlike many American action filmmakers, Bekmambetov understands pacing and escalation: set-pieces build in intensity, and each sequence is filled with inventive gags or gimmicks - like the broken letters that spell out a pithy resignation message when Wesley breaks his keyboard on the face of the best friend who is boffing his girlfriend. Since this isn’t bidding for a PG-13 certificate, it can deliver the gruesome payoffs to its fights, hinting at the comic’s uncomfortable suggestion that escapism is merely a licence to become monstrous.
McAvoy, boyishly charming and occasionally scary, carries off a tricky role - growing the hero’s character to match his bullet-curving and knife-fighting skills - and proves he can hold his own in ‘proper movies’ as well as polite literary adaptations. A scarily slender Angelina Jolie is insidiously attractive as the world’s greatest (and, apparently, most limber) hit lady: she has never been more charismatic on screen - or bent into such odd positions. In a summer where even the good action films have been predictable, Wanted offers more than enough twists, turns and surprises to fool even viewers who think they know the material.Verdict
Not as dark as its source material, Wanted works exceptionally on its own terms. McAvoy crashes the A-list, Jolie finally gets to be as big a star on screen as she has been in print, and Bekmambetov proves the most exciting action-oriented emigr� since John Woo.

Reviewer: Kim Newman

 

[Apollo]

yea its gotten alot of positive reviews on rottentomatoes with 11 fresh a 0 rotten

i'm looking forward to see this!

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117937471.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

Wanted

By TODD MCCARTHY



"Wanted" devilishly ups the ante to a new level in adapting violent graphic comics to the bigscreen. By confidently grafting nastily creative, high-tech new ways to kill people onto traditional dramatic themes involving professional assassins and family revenge, Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov assures himself the distinction of becoming the first modern director to emerge from Russia to carve a high profile in Hollywood. Relentless, in-your-face action and a classy cast led by a beefed-up James McAvoy and a heavily tatted Angelina Jolie combine to promise powerful B.O. prospects worldwide for Universal. As the man responsible for the two highest-grossing films in Russian history, "Night Watch" and its sequel "Day Watch," Bekmambetov, a helmer with muscular visual skills akin to those of top commercials directors, was a good bet to supply the desired edge and a distinctive flavor to this type of genre fare. Often fruitfully and sometimes gratuitously, he gooses every shot with some extra jolt or manipulation, be it an abrupt change in camera speed, skip-framing, odd pulsation or just good, old-fashioned rack focus. He can even use the leading character's accelerated metabolism as a plausible excuse to create a visual correlative in the film's often breathless rhythms.
Like it or not, "Wanted" pretty much slams you to the back of your chair from the outset and scarcely lets up for the duration.
Opening action sequence provides a pretty good indication of what's in store in this adaptation of the popular cult comics created by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones: After deftly avoiding assassination in his office in a Chicago skyscraper, the formidable-looking Mr. X (David Patrick O'Hara) leaps through glass and across the void to the roof of the building across the way, only to finally lose a gun battle fought with bullets that follow curved trajectories when fired by shooters who know what they're doing.
Next day, put-upon account manager Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) is abruptly informed by a mysterious woman (Jolie) standing in a supermarket line that his father, one of the all-time great assassins, died yesterday. Suddenly, this woman, whose name aptly happens to be Fox, is in a firefight with Cross (Thomas Kretschmann), the man who killed dear old dad -- a duel that continues in insanely speeding vehicles on the Chitown streets. That's two hyperventilated action sequences in the first 25 minutes.
Fox takes Wesley to the fortress-like headquarters of the Fraternity, where a nattily attired Morgan Freeman, as the org's boss, Sloan, explains how the 1,000-year-old institution takes it upon itself to eliminate people who are fated to die for reasons dictated by hidden patterns in textiles woven at the factory. Learning that this is as good a reason as any to bump off people he doesn't know, Wesley undergoes training -- repeatedly getting the living crap beaten out of him by menacing guys with names like the Repairman, the Butcher and the Exterminator -- in brutally sadistic interludes designed to make the wimpy loser tough enough to take on the rogue former Fraternity brother Cross.
Once he's graduated by perfecting the art of the bending bullet, Wesley achieves his rite of passage to ultimate manhood -- defined as being able to kill without hesitation or remorse. Wesley's transformation, from one-time pushover to indestructible powerhouse, is not unlike that of any number of Marvel heroes,although the context and implications here are much darker than in the worlds of Spider-Man and his brethren.
Desperate to go toe-to-toe with Cross, Wesley heads to Europe and the birthplace of the Fraternity, where, under duress, its monkish leader (Terence Stamp) arranges a rendezvous aboard a train. This spectacularly outlandish action sequence, which parallels multiple earlier scenes of Wesley and Fox training on top of Chicago's El, would seem designed to cap things off. But as concocted by scripters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (who collaborated on "3:10 to Yuma" and "2 Fast 2 Furious") and Chris Morgan ("The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift"), there are multiple betrayals, avenged misdeeds and literal mind-blowing still to come in a film that never lets up.
The diminutive McAvoy might have seemed an unexpected choice for this sort of kickass role, but the always inventive thesp proves he's got a bit of Russell Crowe in him as he brandishes an impressive amount of muscle, grit and anger. He may be one of those rare actors who can do just about anything. Fox is a perfect role for Jolie, a sort of fancified extension of her Mrs. Smith that allows her to be a tough babe and also gently send up the caricature. While intoning the dialogue with his usual elan, Freeman gets to be nastier than usual as the big boss in charge of all the secrets. Most of the supporting thesps register strongly on the basis of being memorable physical types.
Bekmambetov's Russian films showed he knows how to achieve the visceral effects he wants, and the vastly greater means at his disposal here provide him with the tools to supercharge his work; he will have his pick of projects now. He and his highly pro team of lenser Mitchell Amundsen, production designer John Myhre, editor David Brenner and myriad hands in the effects, makeup, stunt, location and other departments manage a consistent blend of live-action with computer effects, and Prague studio work with Chicago and New York street shooting. As if the picture needed it, Danny Elfman's score provides additional propulsion

 

[nidopal]

NICE! Please post all the reviews you can find here.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=11280

Film Review: Wanted
Bottom Line: A bloody, audacious adrenaline rush.
By Michael Rechtshaffen

Jun 19, 2008



Opens: Friday, June 27 (Universal)

It's good to be "Wanted."

The debut American feature by successful Russian director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch" and its record-smashing 2006 sequel, "Day Watch"), this over-the-top, ultraviolent, hyperkinetic action thriller pretty much has it all.

That would include engagingly offbeat source material in the form of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones' comic book series, a decent adaptation by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (last year's "3:10 to Yuma" remake) and Chris Morgan ("Cellular"), a terrific cast and jaw-dropping stunt work.
Then there's the visually charged talents of Bekmambetov -- a man who has funneled the best of the Wachowski brothers, Quentin Tarantino and contemporary Hong Kong action movies through his own wry sensibility.

Capably establishing the anything-goes tone of the Los Angeles Film Festival in its capacity as official curtain-raiser, the Universal guilty pleasure should make plenty of noise, especially with young males, when it opens next weekend.

James McAvoy, sporting a swell American accent, is certain to build on his big-screen appeal as Wesley Gibson, a put-upon account executive who discovers that his long-absent father belonged to a centuries-old league of supersensory assassins known as the Fraternity.

It also turns out that Gibson is a chip off the old block in the killing department, but before he can avenge his father's death, he must get into fighting shape with a little help from the Fraternity's Zen master of a leader, Sloane (Morgan Freeman), and tough-cookie Fox (Angelina Jolie, in sinewy "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" mode).

The three of them prove to be colorful assets in a film where even the bullets seem to have a personality all their own.

Set in Chicago but shot in a cleverly disguised Prague (save for a noticeably Eastern European-accented rendition of "Happy Birthday" by Gibson's fellow office workers), "Wanted" effectively hits the ground running with a steady flow of wildly inventive, CG-infused action sequences.

Also cranking things up a couple of extra notches are resident Michael Bay cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, Oliver Stone's longtime editor David Brenner and prolific composer Danny Elfman, who skillfully dispenses with anything that could be mistaken for subtlety.

 

[S.A.A.D.]

Wanted at Rotten Tomatoes has around a 90% on the Critics Tomatoemeter even though it isn't updated.

There are 12 fresh reviews,and 1 rotten review.

 

[xwolverine2]

Wanted at Rotten Tomatoes has around a 90% on the Critics Tomatoemeter even though it isn't updated.

There are 12 fresh reviews,and 1 rotten review.

i find it stupid how one person out of 13 can bring it down to 92% lol

but yeah, his main complaints were that their wasnt enough back story and that the movie was too loud....

...


LOL

 

[MightyGuy]

i find it stupid how one person out of 13 can bring it down to 92% lol

but yeah, his main complaints were that their wasnt enough back story and that the movie was too loud....

...


LOL

Eh, the only guy who disliked the film so far was the guy from "The New Yorker", and he's a terrible critic; all the other critics have raved about the movie. Seriously, go and look at his reviews - he gives negative reviews to TONS of great movies. "There Will Be Blood" - bad. "Sweeney Todd" - bad. That guy's opinion doesn't matter for squat - "Wanted" is going to be made out of pure awesomeness, mark my words.

 

[xwolverine2]

WANTED

Universal Pictures/ Spyglass Entertainment
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
Written By: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Chris Morgan, story by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas from Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’s comic strips
Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann
Screened at: AMC Lincoln Square, NYC, 6/23/08
Opens: June 27, 2008

If you’re now or ever was a card-carrying fraternity member, you’ll recall what you went through to turn from a mere pledge to a brother. If your experience was like mine, your final days as a pledge was called “hell week,” when you had to scrub the meeting-room floor with a toothbrush, rattle off the names of the fraternity founders on four hours’ sleep, and perhaps got taken with your fellow pledges to the woods, miles away, and dumped at midnight. This was all in the cause of bonding with your fellow pledges, we were later told, and likewise, in Timur Bekmambetov’s graphic action adaptation of Mark Miller and J.G. Jones’s comic strips, one young man goes through far more hell before induction into a grown-up fraternity. “Wanted,” composed of breathless action with a few pauses to explain what’s going on in a convoluted plot, is filled with car crashes, people smashing through windows, one spectacular view of a derailed train, guns that shoot bullets as though they were curve balls—in short, everything that summer actioners are and should be about. Best of all is the casting of James McAvoy, who turned in a terrific performance as Idi Amin’s naïve Doctor Nicholas Garrigan in “The Last King of Scotland,” sporting a flawless American accent: not the easiest trick to learn if you’re a Glaswegian by birth.

With McAvoy in almost every scene as Wesley Gibson, a nerdy, put-upon, pushed-around accountant, “Wanted” has the feel of a Walter Mitty fantasy helmed by Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov, who is responsible for two high box-office successes in Russia, “Night Watch” and “Day Watch”—the former about a group that divided into forces of darkness and light centuries ago. The story opens without the slightest background information on a Mr. X (David Patrick O’Hara), who jumps through a window onto the roof of an adjacent building only to be cut down by strange bullets that curve around corners the way that any self-respecting pro-basketball player can score a hook shot.

We’re taken into the cubicle of Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), whose face turns beet-red from a dressing down from his boss, Janice (Lorna Scott). But that’s nothing compared to what follows, as Wesley, about to renew his prescription for anti- anxiety pills, winds up in the middle of a gun battle, protected by a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie), who informs him that his father had died the day before. She indicts one Cross (Thomas Kretschmann) as his father’s killer, then painstakingly inducts the young man into the Fraternity under the leadership of Sloan (Morgan Freeman), an initiation that involves getting himself beaten to a pulp to toughen him up for the job of getting revenge on Cross. He learns how to shoot bullets on a curve, how to run, jump and most important to strut his stuff as a born-again superhero.

Later, in Europe (shot by Mitchell Amundsen in Prague and in that beautiful city’s Barrandov Studios), a Fraternity leader (Terence Stamp) sets him up on a train where he can face off against Cross as though he were Marshall Will Kane in Fred Zinnemann’s “High Noon.” At this point, the Big Twist plays out as our superhero realizes that things are seldom what they seem.

Angelina Jolie takes a back-seat to the splendidly cast James McAvoy who, as an account manager in a cubicle has the cautious personality of the doctor in “The Last King of Scotland” but who emerges as a buttkicking dynamo under the tutelage of the Fraternity. Comic scenes center on Wesley’s relationship with his girlfriend, a woman who is regularly cheating on him with Wesley’s best friend, Barry (Chris Pratt). The pic becomes pulsating from Danny Elfman’s music, gains speed with David Bremmer’s editing, and scenic variety in Prague, Chicago and New York through Mitchell Amundsen’s lenses. Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas’s “3:10 to Yuma” serves as background to this much faster-moving popcorn movie, but ultimately the picture’s quality depends on James McAvoy’s credible performance as the nerd that most of us are, all of us wishing for the superhero to come out.

Rated R. 109 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

 

[nite-owl]

Total Film review.

http://www.totalfilm.com/cinema_reviews/films_out_this_week/wanted

 

[JMadisonIV]

of course the Critics loved it.

they are watching it as a generic action movie, not as a movie based on a comic book.

If it were called something else, and not claimed to be based on anything, there would be no problems at all, and everyone would probably like it.

I can't imagine that the source material is being taken into consideration like it would be for more popular Comics, when it comes to the reviews for Wanted.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

I can't imagine that the source material is being taken into consideration like it would be for more popular Comics, when it comes to the reviews for Wanted.

They're judging the movie. They're movie critics, not fanboys.

 

[xwolverine2]

this is by far the STUPIDEST CRITIC!!.... lmao he expected a romantic movie between jolie and mcavoy.........WHAT?!

The trailers for the action movie "Wanted" promise some hot romantic sparks between stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. "Is this when we start to bond?" asks McAvoy. "Would you like to?" Jolie purrs. Then there's a shot of the two smooching. The thing is, that first rooftop scene isn't even in the movie and the kiss (which is) has nothing to do with romance. There is no love story. At all.

So much for truth in advertising. The rest of the trailer, however, gives you a fair taste of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov's hyperbolically violent movie.

Here's a movie that offers mass murder as a cure for the 9-to-5 blues. Is that Russian, or what? Personally, I'd have preferred the love story.

 

[JMadisonIV]

They're judging the movie. They're movie critics, not fanboys.

exactly my point. they aren't taking the source material into consideration. they are just looking at the movie as is, as if it weren't based on anything and is just a generic action movie.

I think if someone who was truly a fan of the source material and were to review it, the review would not be as glowing as the ones we've seen.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

I think if someone who was truly a fan of the source material and were to review it, the review would not be as glowing as the ones we've seen.

Do you think?
http://www.newsarama.com/film/080620-review-wanted.html

First things first: Wanted the movie bears only a loose resemblance to the comic book series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones. Those few who are going to get upset at the slightest deviation from the costumed supervillains, oddball characters, or specific plotline of the comic should hereby consider themselves sufficiently warned.

For the vast majority of moviegoers, the movie version of Wanted stands out as a highly entertaining action film that preserves the comic’s core premise and cheeky attitude while taking the story into very different but still satisfying territory.

The film is most similar to the comic in its first act, as unhappy slacker Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) endures a life gone wrong. He works for an abusive, overbearing woman in a miserable cubicle-farm job; his so-called girlfriend is sleeping with his supposed best friend; and he suffers frequent anxiety attacks that prevent him from taking control of his life.

All that changes when the beautiful Fox (Angelina Jolie) shows up and inducts Wesley into the world of the Fraternity of Assassins. The group’s leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), explains that Wesley is the heir his long-absent father’s role in the organization as a super-talented killer who carries out the orders of fate.

Initially skeptical, Wesley is won over by the power that comes with life in the Fraternity. He takes quickly to his training, learning how to “curve” bullets around object to hit their target with the help of the Fox and the Gunsmith (hip-hop artist Common).

At this point, the film ventures off into generally new territory.

Director Timur Bekmambetov, whose previous films include Night Watch and Day Watch, shows his affection for video game imagery in sequences that would be right at home in the latest version of Burnout or Grant Theft Auto.

Particularly breathtaking are the auto chases and a lengthy sequence on a train in which Wesley and the Fox pursue Cross (Thomas Kretcshmann), a former assassin who is ostensibly out to kill Wesley and bring down the Fraternity. Much of the sequence is refreshingly done with old-fashioned stunt work, seamlessly integrating with convincing CG elements.

That sequence ends with a revelation that borrows a plot element from the comic, but puts its own twist on it to make it fit into the direction the movie has taken.

The film is not without its flaws. Some new elements are just silly, such as the Fraternity taking its orders from a device called the Loom of Fate, which weaves the names of those the group must kill into the fabrics it produces. Interesting characters get short shrift and logic takes the usual summer blockbuster back seat to spectacle. But the fresh action sequences and the compelling and usual arc of Wesley’s character quickly outweigh such complaints.

The performances are all around very good, with McAvoy in particular convincingly turning Wesley from loser into gun-wielding action hero. Jolie brings a sexy subtlety to her part, which many moviegoers may find smaller than expected given her prominent role in the film’s marketing.

The film deserves credit for a particularly strong ending that provides a final echo to the comic and doesn’t avoid taking the film’s violent premise to a logical conclusion.

How Wanted will play with audiences is harder to see. R-rated blockbusters like this one have faded in recent years as studios tone down the violence in a bid to lure larger audiences. That Wanted delivers genuine thrills and a compelling, though definitely adult, story should be enough for it to stand out as a successful action movie.

 

[xwolverine2]

the rating has dropped to around 60%...
yeesh

then again the matrix revolutions has a 30% rating... and i absolutely loved it

 

[shinlyle]

What the hell? It was at 88% last night? Why the freefall?

I'm against the movie, but that's just weird.

 

[S.A.A.D.]

^Actually,Wanted is sitting at a 71% courtesy of the movie critics at rottentomatoes.com.

 

[MightyGuy]

It's back up to 73% now - and keep in mind, anything above 60% is considered "fresh"; it seems that most movies fall below 50%.

Plus, look at some of the latest "rotten" reviews that came in, bringing that score down from the 80s - "Mansized"? "Creative Loafing"? "Metromix.com"? Who the heck ARE these guys? And why did "Time Out"'s negative review get counted twice? Don't get me wrong, there ARE a couple of "legitimate" negatives, like the Orlando Sentinal and the Chicago Tribune, but for the most part, it looks like a bunch of yahoos who suddenly brought the score down; I'm not too worried.

 

[kakashi]

Another good review:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25337920/

What “Wanted” also does is to make the most of its computer-generated fakery. So many CG movies bore us because they don’t take full advantage of the new reality they’re capable of creating. But “Wanted” throws established reality out of the window, giving us killers who can flip cars upside down to shoot at people through sunroofs, race each other across the tops of elevated trains, and make bullets travel along sine curves rather than in straight lines. (And not to give anything away, but “Wanted” refuses to follow the rules of Hollywood summer tentpole movies; prepare to let the plot jolt you at least one if not more times.)

 

[IRON_Lad]

this is by far the STUPIDEST CRITIC!!.... lmao he expected a romantic movie between jolie and mcavoy.........WHAT?!

 

[X-Maniac]

The UK's Guardian newspaper hated it:

They gave it one star.

The review begins thus:

You could gargle bitumen and bin-juice for half an hour, and it couldn't leave a nastier taste in your mouth than this macho action thriller about a secret fraternity of assassins. It is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, evidently brought over to Hollywood on the strength of his wildly successful Russian movies like Day Watch. The stars are Angelina Jolie, sporting her now familiar default smirk, and our own James McAvoy stepping up to his first A-list role. The spectacle of their strange gym-built bodies, variously starved and pumped, and the boring, risk-free digital "stunts", can't distract you from just how dreary and insidious the whole business is. It looks as if it has been written by a committee of 13-year-old boys for whom penetrative sex is still only a rumour, and the resulting movie plays like a party political broadcast on behalf of the misogynist party.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,2287303,00.html

And, before any silly fanboy suggests it, I am nothing to do with the Guardian, i am merely posting their review after a friend pointed it out.

I gave it a 7 on my own newspaper blog, i thought it visually spectacular but sometimes too focused on visuals. The people I saw it with thought the same, one gave it a 6 and one a 5 so they thought less of it than I did.
The auditorium was virtually empty when i saw it on Saturday night - evidently everyone was seeing Prince Caspian.

 

[xisaacx]

the critics are idiots

officially

 

[p4poetic]

this is by far the STUPIDEST CRITIC!!.... lmao he expected a romantic movie between jolie and mcavoy.........WHAT?!

Some critics...I just can't LOL.

 

[Graphic Man]

I usually don't read critic reviews because I can't tell whether or not some of them are being paid off or not.

From the bits and pieces of what I have heard and based on the trailer...

That is why I haven't seen Wanted in theaters.

However, I will definitely check it out on DVD with some beer though...

but I am not expecting to a good movie or anything.