Wanted
2008 · Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Original language: English
- action
- thriller
- crime
The story
Doormat Wesley Gibson is an office worker whose life is going nowhere. He meets an attractive woman named Fox and discovers that his recently murdered father - whom Wesley never knew - belonged to the Fraternity, a secret society of assassins which takes its orders from Fate itself. Fox and Sloan, the Fraternity's leader, teach Wesley, through intense training, to tap into dormant powers and hone his innate killing skills. Though he enjoys his newfound abilities, he begins to suspect that there is more to the Fraternity than meets the eye.
What it’s like
Hyper-kinetic and glossy, with whip pans, rubbery slow-motion, and bullets that curve through the air in arcs the camera tracks with delight. The palette runs to desaturated steel grays and sickly greens, warmed by orange sodium light in office corridors and rain-slick city streets, and the digital sheen makes every frame feel polished and a little unreal. Danny Elfman's orchestral score swells and stutters beneath the action. The vibe is stylized, adrenaline-fuelled cool with a dash of dark wit, best for a loud Friday night or a bingeable action fix. The mood shifts from drab cubicle boredom to frenzied set pieces, with the emotional beats (a fatherless man finding purpose, a mentor's betrayal) played broad and quick. Violence is frequent and bloody but heavily stylized, with gunfights, a spectacular train crash, and brutal hand-to-hand fights; sexual content is limited to suggestive banter, and the language is coarse. Built for viewers who want spectacle, a rush of pulp energy, and a comic-book sense of fate.
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