After saving the world and picking up all kind of Brown kids from around the world to wear as ornaments (see Niecie Nash from the BET Awards), Angelia Jolie is back with Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy (Atonement, Last King of Scotland), and Common in the comic-to-film adaptation of WANTED. The source material for this flick was a great comic mini-series, written by award-winning Scottish writer Mark Millar (The Ultimates, Ultimate Spiderman, Marvel's Civil War).
Right off the top, the film is NOT really true to the comic. After the initial "origin" it skews pretty far from the story that Millar originally presented in print. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but I had to get over it as I was watching the movie.
I am an anti-spoiler type of guy, so I will not discuss the plot too much other than to say it has some decent twists to it and definitely is not boring. Some of the characters are not totally fleshed-out, but any more time spent on background would have taken away from the action, - which is really what this is about. Many critics are comparing WANTED to The Matrix, but I think it stands on its own and really shares little resemblence to that film.
Jolie looks GREAT, James McAvoy carries off the lead role very well (and if you saw Last King of Scotland, you know this guy is a good actor), and Freeman is his usual self. Common does not get to do much, but he has the "mean mug" pretty much down so he does his job. The stunts are big and spectacular, the special effects blend into the action seamlessly, and the humor had the audience laughing out loud at points.
WANTED is not the second coming of the action film - nor is it better than Iron Man or Incredible Hulk - but its worth the admission for the stunts, humor, and overall kinetic pace that it keeps. Jolie has one HELL of a personal trainer because you would never think she had a kid before this filmed. Not perfect, not totally flawed, this gets a B-.
No comments:
Post a Comment