How can it lose? A movie with Angelina Jolie, her derrière, bullets ripped through generally 89% of the movie’s population, and vivacious special effects, will most likely garner a massive reward from an insatiable public. Sure, said effects hearkens back to a not too distant past (1999), where a couple upstart directors (Wachowski Brothers) thrilled and dazzled us with The Matrix… but who keeps track of such things? Surely, not the MTV generation. Wanted, though unoriginal, unconscionable, and sometimes embarrassing, is the epitome of the American movie scene. Violently beautiful and chalk full of so much nonsense, you could actually feel your brain cells packing their lags and leaving for Vail. Taking Wanted for what it is, an unapologetic violence fetish put to celluloid, the movie does manage –though dated– to make the audience say, “whoa”.

Revolving around Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a mild-mannered twenty-something, trapped in a soul-sucking cubicle performing all the functions that a mild-mannered twenty-something might do. Shuffling paper, reporting to a grotesque boss and of course, being unfulfilled. While working on giving himself carpal tunnel, his girlfriend repeatedly screws his best friend (and co-worker), and takes buckets of medication to help keep his anxiety under control. Needless to say, life is not so grand for Mr. Gibson. That is until he runs into Fox (Angelina Jolie), a mysterious assassin with a toxic combination of beauty and the ability to crush your larynx with a single blow. Hot. After narrowly avoiding death from a run in with yet another assassin in his local grocery store, Fox takes Wesley to see Sloan (Morgan Freeman), the head of The Fraternity, a centuries old, secret society of global assassins. There he learns that the father that abandoned him after birth, is a Fraternity rogue bent on picking off each member of the club. Wesley, carrying the all too important assassin bloodline which gives him seemingly superhuman bullet-curving powers, must seek out of his father and kill him before the entire assassin community falls on its ear.

Very loosely based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, Wanted is a bloody, hyper violent spectacle that will be loved by some, while loathed by others… much like its source material. Joyless and apathetic, the film glamorizes an already saturated market of raging, violently disturbed movies, hellbent on earning revenue from a blood thirsty audience. With that said, if splattered cinema blood can be beautiful, that evidence may be here. Filled with brilliantly framed action sequences, most notably in first 40 minutes, Russian director Timur Bekmambetov takes his violence seriously. Mixed into this molotov cocktail are two actors and one statuesque moving piece of art.

Angelina Jolie, though plastered all over every piece of marketing for the movie (and rightfully so), merely has a sub servant role as a sideshow killer. Basically paid to be eye candy, Ms. Jolie does perform many of her own stunts, including the “on the hood” car chase scene, and is, well… typical Jolie: sexy and can shoot a gun. It’s nothing more, and as her exit from the movie’s healing pool shows, not much less. James McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland) on the other hand, is a delightful surprise in his nerd-turned-mercenary role. Just barely grabbing the believability bar, Mr. McAvoy showcases some chops in his aggressive metamorphosis from average office drone to action mega star. Throw in a God-like performance from Morgan Freeman and Wanted, despite its many flaws is actually an entertaining movie.