Movie Madness: Wanted

We have a link to a very good review of Wanted in The Internet Is Your Playground this morning, but there are a few notable things about the film that are not discussed in the review (or that are only discussed briefly.)

Wanted does a spectacular job of presenting a set of rules for the film and sticking to those rules. The rules themselves are absurd, but that’s fine, as long as it’s consistent. There is nothing that drives me up the wall faster than a film that does not understand its own rules. I am willing to suspend my disbelief in any way that a filmmaker asks, as long as he is consistent in his storytelling. Talking animals? Alien robots that turn into cars and planes? Time travel? Sold, sold, and sold… as long as the rules do not change in the middle of the film. Examples after the jump!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: a film that never explained the role of the crystal skull in protecting the people who had it. At times, it seemed like the people with the skull were nearly invincible (remember the ants?), but the skull did not always provide protection. It was a fair-weather crystal skull and unimpressive by my count.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End: a film (and really a trilogy) that does a horrendous job of setting out the ground rules for who can do what. Jack Sparrow is crafty, full of personality, and funny… but does he have some sort of powers? And, if he does not, if he is just a regular guy, can he really paraglide from one ship to another in the middle of a whirlpool with a piece of a torn sail? Really? If they just told me this guy could fly, I would have believed it… but to tell me that he does not have powers but he can paraglide in the middle of a natural disaster? Absurd.

Wanted avoids this trap despite every opportunity to fall into it. The film establishes that these assassins have super-human powers at the very beginning, explains the basics of the source of the power, and does not deviate from the characters powers and limitations. Every absurd thing that happens in the film still feels like something that could happen if people with these powers actually existed, with the possible exception of the train derailment scene. That probably should have been enough to kill everyone involved, powers or otherwise.

Second, I’m not sure how the otherwise excellent UGO review missed this, but this film was The Matrix. The plot was nearly identical. Luckily, Wanted has two things working for it: the film is not particularly plot driven anyway and, if you are going to imitate a film, the first installment of The Matrix trilogy was a pretty damn good film.

The other similarity to The Matrix was in the fabulous effects and violence. Wanted has a chance to be what The Matrix has been for the last ten years and what John Woo films were before that: the type of film that everyone else is trying to emulate. And, frankly, I couldn’t be happier about it.

Third, and this deserves its own post, so I will only briefly mention it here, but Wanted did a wonderful job of being R-rated. My second biggest problem with films in the last decade or so (after the refusal to follow their own rules, see above) is the insistence upon avoiding an R-rating for an R-rated topic. No one will ever convince me that Walk the Line was anything but a terrible film. Why? Because it was a PG-13 interpretation of Johnny Cash’s very, very R-rated (if not NC-17) life. More on this another time. I could write about it for days.

Finally, references to Morgan Freeman saying, “Shoot that motherfucker!” will be the new “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!” People will refer to it all the time and, although the language itself is generic, everyone will know the reference. We’ve become accustomed to Morgan Freeman as God, as Miss Daisy’s driver, and, amazingly, it even seems natural enough for Morgan Freeman to be the head of a secret society of assassins… but Morgan Freeman as the guy who says, “Shoot that motherfucker!” is a moment of pure, wonderful insanity.

Wanted freestyled when called upon. It was an excellent film.

Juice’s Grade: A-