Wanted

Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: 12/2/08
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Common, Terrance Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann
Year: 2008

The Movie:

Based on the Top Cow Productions comic book of the same name by author Mark Millar and artist J.G. Jones, director Timur Bekmambetov's 2008 film, Wanted, care not for realism and at times seems like an exercise in style over substance. Thankfully, the script has enough character development to keep things interesting and an unexpected twist or two along the way helps a fair bit too.

The movie begins by explaining how centuries ago a secret guild of assassins was formed to 'kill one to save a thousand' and help to keep the world in some sort of order. From there we witness an attack on a member of this 'Fraternity' by a rogue former member. The hit is successful and the man is shot dead. From here we meet the dead man's son, Wesley (James McAvoy) who, like so many of us, hates his job and doesn't feel he's accomplished much with his life. His girlfriend is screwing around on him behind his back with his supposed best friend and he lives in a cheap apartment right next to the subway line in Chicago. He chews prescription medicine like it was candy and spends most of his free time sleeping.

His life changes on day when he's approached in the drug store by a sexy brunette named Fox (Angelina Jolie) who, after saving him from the same assassin who killed his father, brings him back to meet her boss, a man named Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Wesley is then educated on the history and the guild and they eventually coerce him to join them. He undergoes some intense and rigorous training, tells his boss off, punches his 'best friend' in the face and starts his new life as an assassin. Once he's up to speed and Fox and Sloan decide his abilities are strong enough, he starts to work his way back to the killer who slew his father…

If you're able to get over how quickly Wesley adjusts to his new life and how fast he adjusts to becoming a killing machine (a reasonably sized hurdle we have to get over in order to suspend our disbelief), then Wanted becomes a lot of ultra-violent fun. The action scenes are heavy on the CGI, particularly once the characters start 'bending bullets' and shooting on curves but realism isn't what's important here. The film has style to spare and contains enough clever and often times quite humorous dialogue to work and the lead performances from McAvoy, Jolie and Freeman are all good enough that we can easily accept them in their respective roles.

In general, however, this is a film made up of nutty action set pieces. Various gun fights, a couple of creative assassination scenes, car chases, a mammoth train crash, a one man attack on a veritable fortress and a Mexican stand off of sorts make up the bulk of the film while the plot, which gets a little thin in spots, strings it all together and makes it cohesive. Bekmambetov (best known in North America for Night Watch and it's sequel, Day Watch) keeps the picture moving at a good pace even if it probably could have been ten minutes shorter and places an emphasis on excitement and action rather than subtly or script. As thin as the plot is in spots, however, it's still got some interesting social commentary, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle, the makes the humor all the more effective. In the end, it's a fairly superficial film but a hyper-violent and really fun slice of entertainment regardless.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Universal's 1080p AVC encoded 2.45.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks great despite some funky color saturation in some scenes (a conscious choice on the part of the filmmakers). There are a couple of spots where the CGI looks a little flat and cartoonish but aside from that this is a very sharp, detailed and colorful transfer. You can see every hair on the characters' heads and close up shots really exhibit a lot of meticulous detail, especially in the actors' faces. Black levels are strong and deep without burying the shadow detail and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts, edge enhancement or macro blocking to note.

The English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio is rock solid on this release. There's plenty of surround activity to marvel over throughout the film, particularly when bullets start twisting in the air and moving around the sound stage. Dialogue stays clean and clear throughout and the levels are well balanced though there are a couple of spots where the more bombastic action really comes through quite loudly (though this feels appropriate - a train crash, for instance, should be deafeningly loud!). Bass response is nice and powerful and the mix has a nice, strong low end to it while Danny Elfman's score, which is actually fairly subtle at times, has some nice clarity to it.

First up, as far as the supplements go, is a nifty Alternate Opening (2:38, HD) that explains the origins of the assassins guild in a visual manner as opposed to the text screens that we get in the finished version of the film. This sets up the film better, actually, and it fits in with the tone of the movie nicely. A single Extended Scene (1:58, SD) is also included that expands upon the scene where Wesley first learns to use a gun in the butcher's workshop.

Cast And Characters (19:58, HD) allows director Timur Bekmambetov and comics writer Mark Millar to chime in on how and why they feel that the film is so effectively cast. Joining the discussion are pretty much all of the main actors, including Jolie, Freeman and McAvoy, all of whom talk about their characters a bit and what it was like playing their respective roles.

From there we move on to some of the stunts and effects related featurettes starting with Stunts On The L Train (2:30, HD) which gives us a quick look at how the subway-top stunt work was shot and completed in post-production. Special Effects: The Art Of The Impossible (8:27, HD) is a more general overview of some of the effects used in the film while in Groundbreaking Visual Effects: From Imagination To Execution (8:06, HD) director Bekmambetov discusses how his Russian Production Company, Bazelev, completed all of the major effects set pieces in post-production from their offsite offices in his homeland.

The Origins Of Wanted: Bringing The Graphic Novel To Life (8:05, HD) is a chat with Scottish born comics scribe Mark Millar who talks about the difference slant a European writer can bring to American culture before explaining where the ideas for Wanted came from. He praises the artwork of artist J.G. Jones and proceeds to talk about the film. It's fairly interesting stuff if you have an interest in the source material and it's always nice to see the comics creators get some love on the home video releases of films based on their work - a recent trend that should by all means continue.

Through The Eyes Of Visionary Timur Bekmambetov (9:05, HD) is an interesting look at who Timur Bekmambetov is and how he works. Most of the cast members from Wanted chime in here, with Jolie noting that he really is quite an artist (he was involved in the art scene before he started directing) and as such brings an interesting slant to filmmaking. Mark Millar talks about working with him on the pre-production work required for the film while the amiable Bekmambetov himself chimes in here and there and explains his theories on filmmaking and life in general.

Up next is The Making of Wanted: The Game (10:01, HD) which is, as you could probably guess, a look at the making of the video game spin off based on the movie. Here we see how motion capture technology was used to create some of the graphics in the game and we hear from the developers about how they tried to keep it in the spirit of the film and the comic book that inspired it. And while we're on the topic of Wanted: The Game, be sure to cruise through the extra features on this Blu-ray disc to find a few game codes that can be used to upgrade weapons and armor.

Also exclusive to the Blu-ray release is Universal's nifty U-Control functionality. Through the colored buttons on your Blu-ray remote you can check out profiles for the various assassins that appear throughout the film as they appear on the screen in the film as well as some interesting picture in picture commentary that includes some decent behind the scenes and stunt footage. This functionality also allows you to bookmark whatever specific scene you'd like in the film for easy access later on. Last but certainly not least, you can also watch an animated version of the Top Cow comic book play out complete with narration and sound effects.

Rounding out the extra features is a digital copy of the film (included on a second disc), animated menus, scene selection, and Blu-ray Live capability for those with a web-enabled Blu-ray player.

The Final Word:

Ridiculous beyond belief but never the less incredibly entertaining, Wanted is an action movie fan's wet dream. Yeah, fine, it's pretty heavy on the CGI (which will annoy some) and it throws realism completely out the window but it's fast paced, exciting, humorous and most importantly a whole lot of fun. Universal's Blu-ray release is stacked with decent extra features and presents the film in great quality making this one to watch out for.