Jason already did a very good review about the movie Wanted, which hit theaters on Friday. We don’t usually double-up on movie reviews, but since I’ve read the graphic novel that the film was based on, I wanted to weigh in a bit with how I felt it followed the original story.
(Note: This review is going to have some major spoilers from the movie and book in it, so read at your own discretion)
The funny thing is that despite me having read the novel, and Jason not, we both felt the exact same way when it came to giving it a rating.
And it’s really not too hard to relay the ways in which the movie was different than the comic: Aside from the way Wesley Gibson discovers who he is, and the very last page where the ending turned things back on the reader, NOTHING in the movie was close to the nature and scale of the story that Mark Millar penned.
I really didn’t expect anything contrary to that really, but I think Millar’s novel would have made for a more interesting film.
Where the comic told the story of a world in which the bad guys ruled and killed at will, along with a few other dimensions tossed in for good measure, the movie Wanted tried to be “The Matrix” and failed miserably.
The comparisons to Neo and his journey to becoming The One were so obviously similar that I almost laughed a few times out loud.
(and I wasn’t the only one - there were quite a few snickers during scenes that were meant to be serious and dramatic)
Wesley is a loser, like Neo. He finds out what is going on from a beautiful woman who takes him her leader. The leader scares him enough and he ends up with a choice to either join and train, or leave.
Sound familiar so far? It doesn’t end there.
He trains, like Neo did, he goes on a few practice kills, like Neo did, and then he confronts the main bad guy, so VERY much like Neo ended up doing.
And then there is the supernatural aspect of things, where these Fraternity assassins have heartbeats at over 400 a second which allows them greater speed and reaction than a normal person.
Again, a very Matrix-like ability.
The problem for me was that The Matrix was awesome, and this film could never equal that and thus it just wasn’t good enough.
They already had a great idea for a story and tried to turn it into something else entirely. They also tried to make us believe some very hokey ideas, like contracts being delivered by MAGIC fabric? Really? With no idea where they are coming from? Just fate?
The opening was fun, the big chase and discovery of who Wesley is was kind of cool. But then the middle just didn’t work for me, and the ending (while gloriously violent and cool) was pretty weak.
The devotees to the graphic novel will likely get a kick out of the final dialog from Wesley, but other than that, the disappointment will be great.
Ah well. About what I expected. I read Jason's review yesterday and it was tepid, so that wasn't a good sign. A renter.
Does Wes know Kung-fu like Neo? Sounds like between you and jason this is a little above middle fo the road… sad because the book probably would have been much better of a story.
This movie was an action packed thrill ride. Even my girlfriend liked it.