Wanted

When I saw the trailer for Wanted, I thought the idea of a fraternity of assassins was a pretty cool idea, and I think James McAvoy is a solid actor, and Angeline Jolie is always good eye candy, so it looked like I really couldn't lose with this action flick.
When the movie started though I had some doubts: the fraternity of assassins was founded by a society of weavers - weird. Why would weavers need to be so deadly? It doesn't make much sense, and I think I did laugh out loud when that fact was revealed.

Wanted is in the same vein as Sin City, or 300, highly stylized violence and bloodshed. So if you cringe at blood, or slo-mo fist fights and gory deaths, you might want to stay away from this one. McAvoy plays a spaced out slacker that hates his life, but can't seem to find a way out of it. His obese boss constantly yells at him and his best friend is sleeping with his girl friend - it can 't get much worse than that. He then finds out that he is descended from one of the greatest assassins of all time, and now is his time to pick up the mantle. With help from a team of deadly teachers
including Jolie and Freeman, McAvoys learns his way around the
world of organized killing and the ellusive skill of bending bullets. Everything seems to be going well until McAvoy learns the truth behind his recruitment.

Wanted is a high octane thriller that doesn't stop from the moment it starts. McAvoy is the standout performer here, but I don't think he needed to adopt an American accent for this role. His transformation from loser to uber-cool killer is believable, especially when he embraces his more violent nature as he makes a very memorable exit from his hell-hole office job. Jolie looks good (a little on the skinny side if you want my honest opinion, I thought she looked way hotter in the Tomb Raider films), and plays the hard-ass vixen aptly named Fox. It's a flat character that didn't need much in the way of character acting, but entertaining nonetheless. Freeman is the head of the Fraternity, who interprets the mystical cloth to see who needs to be offed. The storyline isn't the greatest, as you can see with the weavers and future seeing cloth, but if you're going to go see this movie for its writing, you're delusional.

Overall, I enjoyed Wanted: the action sequences were well choreographed and didn't go on forever, McAvoy and Freeman had some great one liners and Jolie was sexy which was enough to hide the fact that the storyline of the movie was pretty weak. But was nice to see a fresh take on a genre that has gotten a bit stale.