Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

Happiness is a Warm Gun
By
Michael C. Riedlinger
Editor-In-Chief

            The toughest questions in Timor Bekmambetov’s (Night Watch, Day Watch) directing career likely came when he signed on to direct Wanted. How do you shoot the unfilmable book? How does one make their long awaited American directing debut with a movie about a serial killer/rapist/terrorist? The answers are simple: You don’t. The script, by action movie vets Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, and Chris Morgan, sticks closely to the source material as long as it possibly can before veering off in a totally new direction, with writer Mark Millar’s blessings, of course.

            The film starts, true to the graphic novel, with a hardcore killer being assassinated from miles away. He lopes into a trap, dies, and our protagonist inherits everything the killer owned. For his part, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy, Aonement, Last King of Scotland) is the worst sad-sack, pathetic loser you ever met. He takes abuse from his boss like it were an Olympic event, and he does nothing about his cheating girlfriend or asshole best friend. He hates his life and does nothing about it, until Fox (Angelina Jolie) shows up and recruits him into an organization of honorable assassins doing the work of fate. The scene in question has been the opener for many of this film’s trailers out there, and I’m glad to report that they pulled a fast one on us viewers, substituting false dialogue in place of the actual exchange, which is smooth as hell. Fox saves Wesley from his would-be assassin, tells him he’s a killer deep down inside, and he eventually agrees to be trained by her and the other members of “The Fraternity”.

            I know, I know, it sounds like a the opening to a bad porno when you really try to think about it, but the film really does its best to keep to as tight a story as Millar’s book as possible. Though it diverges thematically, it still retains it’s own tone of voice, and that is something most book-to-film adaptations fail to accomplish. We watch as Wesley transforms from a loser nobody into a stone-cold killer, and we love it! The performances are all played close to the vest, with emotion coming in fits and spurts. The action, however, is a non-stop jolt of adrenaline.

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            Bekmambetov’s reputation as the Russian Wachowski should be secure now, and you can really see the carryover from his prior film work in Wanted. He has a knack for making cars do the impossible in film, and it all amounts to loads of fun. For their part, Jolie and McAvoy generate good chemistry, but it never culminates in much. This is the hurdle, the unnecessary love story, that most actioners get hung up on, so I was relieved that the romantic story arc wasn’t pursued. Instead, we get a nice lingering shot of Jolie’s tattoos as she steps out of a hot wax bath. Morgan Freeman and the other supporting cast also do well to flesh out the scenery, but nothing can save the problems with the story.

            Once the screen version diverges from the book, plot holes start showing up in spades. Why was the Frenchmen in the wrong place and time to get shot? Why do the police stop searching for Wesley and Fox? Why doesn’t the monk simply tell Wesley the truth about Cross (the villain) and solve a lot of problems before the killing starts? I can go on, but most of these plot holes slip past without notice because the film has hit such a breakneck pace by the time they come up, most of us don’t even care.

            All in all, the film is worth your eight bucks. Executive Producer Marc Silvestri (owner of Top Cow Productions) confirmed for me over the weekend in Chicago (where the film was shot and takes place) that there certainly will be a sequel to this blockbuster. With both James McAvoy and Timor Bekmambetov signed on for it already, I can only hope that they take the relationship between production staff and Mark Millar a step further and just let him write the script. No, we don’t get to see the great book on screen, nor could we expect to, but what we get is almost as good and certainly packs just as much punch.

Final Verdict (out of 5):