Wanted But Not DOA (Wanted (DVD))

Member Name: utero

Product:	Wanted (DVD)
Date:	04/11/08 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Action, Well Directed, Good Cast

Disadvantages: Some of the plot is a bit daft

After having my retinas burned in the last week by the terrible Crank and the ADD style editing of the action in the new 007, I asked myself if I was really ready for a third action driven film.

See any trailer or advert for Wanted and you'll get the jist of what it's all about, guns, ammo, matrix style effects and loads of crash bang wallop. Now in the wrong hands, this could have the potential to be a brainless actioner with direction by someone who doesn't know how to handle action.

Thankfully Wanted turns out to be a pleasant surprise. Our own James McAvoy crosses the pond to play Wesley Gibson, a young man in a dead end job with a life going nowhere, his girlfriend is sleeping with best friend, his boss is always on at him, and to make matters worse he suffers from chronic anxiety.

But soon his mundane reality is challenged when he becomes embroiled in a shootout in a convenience store. A woman known as Fox (Angelina Jolie) brandishing some major ammo saves him from an anonymous gunman and introduces him to 'The Fraternity', an organisation of assassins lead by the regal Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Wesley's destiny is to avenge the death of the father he never knew, killed by a breakaway member of the fraternity. Wesley goes from being weak mannered to a cold calculated killer by learning the ways of the Fraternity and using what he thought was anxiety as a way of slowing down everything around him in order to take out his target. But of course there are twists and turns, double crosses and all is not what it seems.

Wanted asks you to suspend some plausibility, as long as you go into this knowing that it's based on a comic book and everything is over the top then you should enjoy it. Certainly the idea that cotton weavers formed a closed group of assassin's centuries ago isn't one you'd typically think as well thought out. Even the way the targets are given to the Fraternity is incredibly daft.

However Wanted is a very well made action film that makes it rise above the usual crash bang wallop that serves as a Hollywood action these days. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, he previously made the Russian vampire film Nightwatch. Now I've never seen it but I remember that even the trailer had some amazing stuff in it. This guy can certainly direct action and personally it was great to see some well edited stuff, this doesn't adopt the haphazard MTV style of film-making, instead he allows the audience to breath the action and actual gives them time to take in what's on the screen. The closing action sequences, particularly one set on a speeding train comes to a thrilling climax.

Cast wise, McAvoy carries the film well and manages to carry an American accent without once slipping, he's not your usual action hero and that was refreshing to see. Jolie fits the role of Fox perfectly. I can't think of anyone else who looks great but also dangerous. Morgan Freeman is as you'd expect - refined, regal and able to be foreboding without being over the top.

I enjoyed Wanted far more that I thought I would.

- The DVD -
The transfer on this DVD is excellent with a sharp definition in the picture throughout. The sound mix is as you'd expect a slam-dunk, full of shaking bass, surround sound mayhem and more. Everything you'd expect from an action film and one that DVD was created for.

- Extras -

This is the flat point of the DVD, there's very little on offer. Only two featurettes are on offer. One looks at one of the action set pieces and gives a brief insight into some of the stunts involved. It's nothing special and nothing you won't have seen before.

The other proclaims to be a set tour with rap artist/actor Common. Well he turns up about twice and proclaims things to be great. But most of it is talking heads with the set designers and production crew on what went into creating the lavish set of the fraternity's headquarters.

- Finally -

Wanted is well worth a rental and is a cut above the rest when it comes to recent action films.

Summary: A surprisingly good action film from start to finish