WANTED - DVD review

I watched "Wanted" and found it entertaining, but wasn't overly impressed. In fact, I considered the film a lesser attempt of portraying over-the-top action than the excellent "Shoot ‘Em Up." Then I did a little research on "Wanted" and realized it was based on a comic book miniseries and suddenly the film made just a little more sense to me and I was able to be slightly more acceptable to its banana curve bullet trajectories and insanely silly train derailment. The film is still flawed and lacks the warmth and character of "Shoot ‘Em Up," but when it comes to mindless action films, "Wanted" is more than passable entertainment and if you can check your brain before putting the 5 inch disc into your DVD or Blu-ray player, then "Wanted" can make for an entertaining two hours.

James McAvoy is the headliner for "Wanted" and is joined by Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Oddly, Freeman is not featured on the packaging cover for the home video releases and it is likely that most people have no clue who James McAvoy is. The Scottish actor is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Mr. Tumnus in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," but put forth good performances in films such as "The Last King of Scotland" and the television miniseries "Band of Brothers" and "Children of Dune." Jolie and Freeman are far higher profiled actors and I will typically watch anything starring Morgan Freeman. Jolie is far more of a tabloid story these days than a serious actress, at least in my opinion.

In "Wanted," Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) works in accounting for a very large woman who constantly nags him and causes him to go into fits of anxiety. His best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend and through all of his years of life he has amounted to nothing. His father had left him when he was just born. However, his life takes a dramatic change when an assassin named Fox (Jolie) approaches him at the pharmacy counter while getting his anxiety pills. He is informed that his father was a great assassin and had just been murdered and that his father's killer is in the store and looking to kill him. A wild ride in a Dodge Viper and a large number of bullets introduce Wesley to the world of the Fraternity, which is led by Sloan (Freeman).

Wesley is told that his anxiety is actually a rare condition where his heart rate begins to beat at roughly 400 beats per minute and he gains improved sight and reflexes and that time nearly stops. Never having fired a gun, Wesley is put under duress and shoots the wings off of three flies. This was the third of many insanely silly and over-the-top moments in the film, but it is only a teaser of what is to come as Wesley is trained to become a super assassin by Fox and a number of other members of the Fraternity that includes a Russian known as the Repairman (Marc Warren), who loves rats and the knife training and wielding Butcher (Dato Bakhtadze). He is slow to learn at first, but soon embraces his role and trains to kill the rogue Fraternity assassin Cross (Thomas Kretschmann) who killed his father.

I'm not going to get any further into the story as that would betray some key plot twists, but I do want to point out two of the moments that occur in the film without their context to help further illustrate how far this film goes to betray reality. There is a moment when some of the characters square off in a bullet train that crosses a very high gorge between two tunnels. Somehow, the survival rate is extremely low, but the key characters escape mostly unscathed. Another moment that never quite sat well was the dump truck full of explosive peanut butter digesting rats. It was silly when just one rat was exploded in a scene foreshadowing what was to come, but how exactly can you get that many mangy rats into a dump truck and have the time to put watches on so many of them? Like I said earlier, you need to check your head at the door.

"Wanted" is fun, but requires the audience to completely suspend the notion of reality. In three positions I have achieved the NRA rank of Distinguished Expert and earned Marksman with a pistol in the United States Army Infantry. Therefore, I am a bit offended by the thought of putting a banana curve into a bullet and being able to accurately hit a target in the manner shown by the characters in this film. It was a little more difficult for me to swallow some of the action sequences in the film and I just rolled my eyes when three consecutive bullets collided in mid-air (technically six bullets as it takes two to make a collision). Even with my distaste of bullet physics, I found a lot of mindless fun within the frames of "Wanted."

Director Timur Bekmambetov marks his Hollywood debut with "Wanted" after the entertaining "Night Watch" and "Dark Watch" played well in his native Russia and Kazakhstan. Those films had similar elements to "Wanted" and Bekmambetov certainly has a talent in making over-the-top action films with secret sects of characters. He understands how to keep the pace moving in a high octane action film, but provides meaningful breathers for the character that adds just enough exposition to inform the audience. There are certainly films out there that are faster paced and "Wanted" is a far cry from the frenetic pace of "Aliens," but far more engaging than a number of other action films. The style of touch of Bekmambetov is one of the true assets of "Wanted" that keep this film from being an abysmal and idiotic picture.

I'm not going to categorize "Wanted" as being a good picture. I'm not even going to say it is a good film. That would suggest the plot and story are far better than what they really are. However, there are guilty pleasures in life that are just fun to watch and "Wanted" is one of those pictures that is very entertaining, but misses out on the qualities that define a classic. Sometimes it is nice to just sit back and watch a popcorn film and that is where "Wanted" succeeds, as a picture that just wants to have fun. You are going to roll your eyes more than once, but a couple times the thought is going to pop into your head that something you just saw was pretty cool. The story is lacking. The acting won't impress. However, the action and style make up for some of the film's shortcomings.

Video:

The DVD release of "Wanted" looks absolutely breathtaking and the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation of the film shows that DVD is not yet ready to hand over the home video crown to Blu-ray. The level of detail is very strong and I found the rat invasion to be one of the impressive scenes in the film. Colors are nicely rendered with strong saturation. The red Dodge Viper in the beginning of the film looks very good and skin tones are quite natural as Angelina Jolie gets to show quite a bit of flesh. There are plenty of scenes in the film that takes place in the shadows and black levels and shadow detail are both excellent. The source print used was in perfect condition and no flaws from either that print or the digital transfer can be found. The Blu-ray release is quite strong as well and while it does look better than this DVD release, this is one impressive looking standard definition title.

Audio:

The soundtrack for "Wanted" arrives via a Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel surround mix. English DVS, English Dolby Digital 2.0 matrixed surround and French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are also included as well as subtitles in English, Spanish and French. This is an enveloping mix that gets to life early with the drug store shootout and wild Viper chase sequence. All channels are used effectively and adequately with the .1 LFE channel dealing out strong bass and the rear channels conveying a great deal of information. There is plenty of gunfire and a few explosions in "Wanted" and they all sound very good in Dolby Digital surround sound. Dialogue is strong and the strong soundtrack by Danny Elfman is handled very nicely by the mix.

Extras:

"Wanted" arrives onto the DVD format as a ‘2-Disc Special Edition.' All of the supplemental material is included on the second DVD, which also includes a Digital Copy of the film that is playable on either PC or Macintosh based systems. The first disc boots up with a trailer for the video game adaptation of "Wanted," "Wanted: Weapons of Fate" and then moves into showing trailers for the Coen Brothers film "Burn After Reading" and the now canceled television show "My Own Worst Enemy." The direct-to-DVD sequel "Slap Shot 3: The Junior League" is advertised and just might be worth checking out as the Hanson brothers are part of the film and Leslie Nielsen makes a cameo appearance. There are more advertisements, but I doubt you'll last as long as I did before pushing the Disc Menu button.

The second disc lacks the seven minutes of advertisements and boots immediately. There is more than two hours of value added content on this disc and the quality varies. The first item, an Extended Scene (1:59) shows more footage of Wesley debating shooting a dead woman. They discuss shooting puppies. Cast and Characters (19:59) is your typical EPK styled documentary and finds most members of the cast discussing their characters and their involvement with this film. There were some nice behind-the-scenes moments interwoven into the production. Stunts on the L Train (2:31) looks at how the bridge jump from the L train was achieved. It is brief, but is a nice breakdown of the scene. Special Effects: The Art of the Impossible (8:28) is the last item on the first menu page and is your typical making-of featurette and shows some nice sequences being shot, but doesn't provide a lot of depth.

The second menu page contains just two items. Groundbreaking Visual Effects: From Imagination to Execution (8:06) looks more of how digital effects were handled in post production to create the film's stunning action sequences and is a nice addition to the previous featurette. Event the rats were CGI'd in this film. The Origins of Wanted: Bringing the Graphic Novel to Live (8:05) finds the "Wanted" graphic novelist Mark Millar interviewed about the film and looks at how the story was translated to the film. I found it intriguing that Millar grew up believing Superman existed because he saw an old black and white photograph of George Reeves in costume.

A number of features exist on the third and final menu page. Through the Eyes of Visionary Director Timur Bekmambetov (9:04) found the cast and crew patting the film's director on the back and was your typical EPK making of feature where the director is given in incredible amount of credit. The guy seems like a good director, but I won't base my opinions on this featurette. Wanted: Motion Comics (13:55) shows eight scenes from the original graphic novel with animated frames and dialogue and music. It is intriguing for fans of the film to enjoy. "The Little Things" Music Video Mash-Up (3:36) is a music video based from film clips and featuring the Danny Elfman song. I found myself liking this song a great deal. Is this what Oingo Boingo would sound like today? Finally, The Making of Wanted: The Game (10:01) is a long form advertisement for the pending video game adaptation of the film.

Closing:

"Wanted" is one of those films where I struggle to call it a good film, but I have no problem telling you flat out that it is an entertaining picture. The premise of the film is culled from a graphic novel which was written by an author that once believed in superheroes. That should be enough to tell you that the action is very much over the top. The direction of Russian auteur Timur Bekmambetov is very good for an action film and Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman are comfortable in their roles and the relatively unknown James McAvoy performs adequately in the film. I still prefer "Shoot ‘Em Up," but "Wanted" was enough to keep me interested in the often silly story and I was curious to see how everything would pan out. Aside from a couple teeth groaning moments, I enjoyed myself. The audio and video are both excellent and the second disc is packed with decent special features. You could do better, but this isn't a bad DVD purchase.