Wanted

Wanted (2008) starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann. Nebbishy office drone Wesley (McAvoy) learns that his father was a member of a secret, 1,000-year-old guild of assassins called the Fraternity. The assassin skills are genetic, so Wesley is the next recruit of the Fraternity, trained by the leader Sloan (Freeman) and the lithe Fox (Jolie). The movie is based on a series of comic books, so you can guess at the level of sophistication that is brought to to the plot. That said, it's a slick production, and with some tweaking could have been a really inspiring motion picture. But when all is said and done, it's about assassins, fer chrissakes. How can an assassin be a hero? Only if he truly believes in what he is doing and his cause is just, criteria that I don't think this film fulfills. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, but not closed captions.) Grade: B