by John Roberts

Created on: September 26, 2009

"Wanted" spectacularly lives up to the cliche "a roller coaster of a ride." The film demands suspension of belief in order to fully enjoy as men can leap across the street from skyscraper to skyscraper. The major gimmick is mind control causing bullets to have curved trajectories that is sort of like bend it like Beckham in soccer. Based on a comic book, the hero of "Wanted" is a loser who becomes empowered.

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) describes himself as a non-entity gobbling pills for anxiety attacks. His life does suck as Wesley resides in a dump next to a Chicago El train track, knows his girlfriend is screwing his best friend and worst of all, is a cubicle bound accounting drone whose supervisor is a harridan. The long opening introduction to Wesley is quite bittersweet and poignant because who among us cannot identify with Wesley or some aspect of his existence. McAvoy effectively conveys the frustration of leading a repetitious humdrum life without hope.

However, movies are not reality and so unlike us, Wesley is confronted by Fox (Angelina Jolie) and Jolie is guaranteed to instantly enliven any man's life. Fox whisks Wesley into an action packed whirlwind that eventually awakens a new man in Wesley. He is introduced to the Fraternity, a secret society of assassins founded one thousand years ago by weavers. This is one of the strangest premises ever. The weavers became assassins for the good of mankind because a code was discovered in the weaving that revealed names of those to be executed. The Fraternity does not know why these people need to be killed except that fate via "the loom of destiny" has decreed it.

Sloan (Morgan Freeman) presides over the Fraternity and explains all this to Wesley. Freeman is making a career of playing these authority characters yet does it so well with his commanding presence. There are the usual training scenes involving Wesley who informs Sloan he is ready to kill the man who murdered his father. Sloan wants him to get some seasoning. All this runs a little too long in stalling the hot action to follow. The action sequences are terrific and exciting being a combination of stunts and superior CGI special effects. The mind knows impossible shits are CGI and the eye perceives very convincing work without a hint of phoniness.

McAvoy is carrying his first blockbuster and learned his lessons well at the school of American speak. Most audiences will be oblivious that McAvoy is Scottish with a brogue to his normal speaking voice. Jolie enjoys less screen time than McAvoy and appears uber-thin and fit. After "Wanted" and the "Lara Crift" movies, Jolie again demonstrates she could be the screen's greatest female action star is she so desired. "Wanted" is an all-around success leaving no doubt "Wanted II" will be weaved into the future.

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