Category: Film
Genre: Action / Outlaw / Comic Adaptation
Directed By: Timur Bekmambetov
Running Time: 110 min.
From the trailers I’d seen prior to the movie, Wanted appeared to be very much a file for the MySpace generation. As comic adaptations go, Wanted has a pretty loose relationship to the original material, largely by virtue that the tone and content of the original run would be unpalatable to most folks conditioned by the standard storytelling formula.
I went in not really sure what to expect, but as always, with an open mind. I have to say Wanted managed to surprise me on several levels. The main character has a visceral quality that is very hard to balance with his workday, hangdog wage-slave persona, but between the writing and McAvoy’s performance, it works. While still somewhat predictable, the film bends the usual formulas just enough to be interesting, and disbelief remains suspended on most levels. On other fronts there were moment that can only be described as satisfyingly vicious, a s certain quick shock guilty brutality that caught me off guard, though in a positive way (much like Fight Club in it’s day).
I walked away from the film feeling like I was somehow in the slightly wrong viewing demographic, but found it enjoyable nonetheless. Not required theater viewing, but it may loose something on the small screen if you wait to rent it.
Rating:6/10
