Wanted

“Welcome... to The Fraternity. This gun you're holding belonged to your father; he could conduct a symphony orchestra with it.” So begins Wesley Gibson’s (McAvoy) journey into the world of The Fraternity, a world of super assassins, bullets that curve round corners, and exploding rats.

Timur Bekmambetov, famous for his home-grown Russian films, Night Watch and Day Watch, makes his American debut here, bringing his striking visual style with him. And when I say striking visual style, that’s really quite an understatement: every CGI shot, from the subtle to the completely ridiculous, feels like a piece of art. If you’ve seen Night Watch or Day Watch, you’ll definitely notice the mark of Bekmambetov’s style.

The story revolves around McAvoy’s character, an apathetic slacker, discovering his estranged father was a member of an ancient group of assassins, and has been killed by a disgruntled rogue agent. He gets accepted into The Fraternity and starts to unlock his potential powers, and sets his sights on avenging his father’s life. He discovers though, that the motives of this rogue assassin may be more complex than meets the eye.

As hinted above, the plot and set-pieces do often venture into the ridiculous, although it’s very easy to suspend your disbelief and feast your eyes on the rich visuals, and like Night Watch and Day Watch, Wanted features elements of the supernatural (although considerably less than Bekmambetov’s previous two films). That’s not to say that this is a no-brainer film, for there is something deeper on offer here than is suggested at first glance: a story about how we accept the rules that govern our lives without questioning the real motivation behind it all, with some genuinely surprising twists and turns.

So, in short, if you liked the director’s previous work or you want to see something fun, unusual, and very interesting, go see Wanted.

Edward Harry