After all the high heat of summer hype and the subsequent blossoming of half a dozen near misses, also rans, and flat-out flops, the season finally boasts a genuine 24-karat spectacular, a blockbuster worthy of the name. The strangely and inappropriately titled "Wanted" overflows with enough car chases, shootouts, explosions, tricks, stunts, and special effects to fill up two or three other movies, turning out to be the really sensational action flick that Hollywood annually yearns for.

In a careful, even academic manner, the movie actually fulfills just about every one of the stringent requirements of its genre. Based on a graphic novel, it naturally exhibits not only the comic book subjects and methods, but also the themes and attitudes that appeal to readers of that particular literary form, who certainly constitute a large portion of the movie audience. It satisfyingly bases its virtually nonstop action on the usual preposterous premise and conducts its events in conformity with the usual nonsensical plot.

In voice-over narration that continues intermittently throughout the movie, the protagonist of "Wanted," Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), describes himself as a complete loser - working in white-collar servitude for some nameless company, bullied by his obnoxious boss, nagged by his unfaithful girlfriend, crippled by anxiety attacks. His life changes dramatically when a beautiful woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie) rescues him from an assassination attempt, outshooting the would-be killer and fleeing with him in a maniacal car chase through the streets of Chicago.

Fox brings him to a the headquarters of a group of assassins called the Fraternity, originally formed in the Middle Ages by weavers whose loom, like the artifacts of ancient myth, determines the fate of bad guys singled out for killing. Their leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), tells Wesley that he has inherited the abilities of the father he never knew, the most skilled member of the Fraternity, and that Wesley must now continue his father's work. Wesley then undergoes the group's rigorous training methods, most of which consist of various mentors beating the hell out of him whenever he errs.

The weakling discovers his own inner resources, learning that his panic attacks result from his abnormal metabolism, which enables him to act and react faster than any assailants. He finds that he can not only literally shoot the wings off flies, but can also curve bullets around obstacles to hit targets, like a sidearming pitcher with a great slider. After some qualms about killing someone in cold blood, he succeeds at his first assassination, shooting through a window from the top of a speeding elevated train; from that point, the action pretty much consists of chases, fights, shooting, and blood spraying all over the sets.

Apparently conscious of their debt to tradition, the filmmakers allude to a number of other movies in the process of establishing characters and situations. Aside from the obvious connections to all those superhero groups like the X-Men, the Justice League, and the Fantastic Four, the script slyly slips in mentions of works in both comics and film. In his introduction, Wesley refers obliquely to the much more nihilistic "Fight Club," whose protagonist he somewhat resembles, and later another character repeats a famous line from "The Empire Strikes Back"; more important for both style and content, the script's mystical baloney echoes the richly redolent rubbish of the "Matrix" trilogy.

Despite all the pretentious twaddle intoned by Morgan Freeman in his most magisterial manner, the movie actually functions far more successfully and entertainingly than any of the other grand summer extravaganzas. It exhibits some simply dazzling optical effects, notably perhaps the most exciting use of slow motion and pixilation in recent memory, with repeated shots of bullets moving with exquisite deliberation through space and people with a kind of perverse lyricism that suits the picture's oddly ironic use of violence.

In a role very different from his recent work, James McAvoy performs with a certain level of competence, though hardly with anything like distinction. Decorated with yards of tattoos, the lithe and almost illegally lovely Angelina Jolie maintains an enigmatic demeanor throughout the film, underlining the movie's unusual comic sophistication even in the midst of remarkable car chases and very bloody murders.   

Wanted

(R), directed by Timur Bekmambetov

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