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Wanted
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (30th December 2008). |
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The Film
 How does one criticise a film like "Wanted"? It’s so fantastically silly you really have to approach it on its own terms. Bearing the smallest of resemblances to the Mark Millar and J.G. Jones comic it’s based on, the film focuses on James McAvoy’s character Wesley Gibson. He’s an office-drone-nobody who learns there is more to his life when Angelina Jolie pops up next to him at the prescription counter, proceeds to tell him his father was the greatest assassin who ever lived, that said Daddy has just been offed and McAvoy is the killer’s next target. Before you know it, the poor boy is thrown in front of Morgan Freeman, leader of “The Fraternity” who in his calm, zen-like way tells McAvoy his heart beats 400 times a minute, he can appear to make time slow and that he can curve bullets. With me so far? McAvoy has a panic attack and Freeman shoots the wings off a fly. Why? Cos it’s cool, that’s why. And that’s really the only way to approach criticism of this movie: are the set-pieces it presents ‘cool’? Well, you can’t fault director Timur Bekmambetov for lack of trying. Oh, and did I mention the Fraternity take their kill-orders from a mystical loom? Yep, the Loom of Fate. Well, why not? After ditching most elements of the comic – that the world has actually been conquered by super-villains and is run by them in secret – Bekmembatov spins (ha!) his own looney tale of these “Assassins of Fate”, who “kill one to save a thousand”. Bemambetov, you may remember, is the director behind those two bonkers Russian blockbusters, "Night Watch" (2004) and "Day Watch" (2006). Here, with his English language debut, he keeps things suitably bonkers (the 'Loom of Fate' curiously similar to the 'Chalk of Destiny' from "Day Watch"). The story careens wildely as McAvoy’s Wesley wakes up to the world around him. He is quite clearly, and quite honestly, a wish/revenge fulfilment fantasy for millions out there – calling out his fat bitch of a boss, smacking out the best friend (in a fantastically silly way; with a keyboard that bloodily spells out F-U-C-K Y-O-U) who’s been ‘liaising’ with his girlfriend and generally becoming a badass in the process. And that’s about the extent of the character development. McAvoy plays it well, despite some dodgy accent work. Whilst Wesley becomes a badass, you wouldn’t necessarily like the guy. Yet McAvoy manages to gain our sympathy. Morgan Freeman shows up and does his wise mentor thing, and Angelina Jolie does some very fine work as Fox. She mainly lurks in the background but because of how Jolie really owns the character, you really feel her there every time. And hey, who’s really looking for deep character work in this type of film? This is like "Crank" (2006) or "Shoot’ em Up" (2007), though those films are miles better: over-the-top action spectacles that get you from A to B with the maximum amount of carnage. And it’s the type of carnage that Bekmambetov does well: inventive and physics defying. While a little underwhelming in places and the nonsense occasionally becoming too much even for this it’s really the dubious morals of the film that bring it down for me. Yes, it can be argued this is purely an escapist entertainment type of film, set within a world very different from our own. But the interesting thing is how these types of films hold up a mirror to our own world: this is a tale about a nobody becoming a somebody by killing people. These targets are supposedly ‘bad-guys’, but as is revealed the organization ordering the hits is itself corrupt, asks blind devotion of it’s members and is accountable to no-one (except maybe the Loom. The Loooooooom!). Their “kill one to save a thousand” reasoning tumbles down with a train full of people while they’re after one target – killing a thousand to kill one. Again though, if you can turn off that critical side of your brain (but don’t switch off entirely) and you got a kick out of "Crank" and "Shoot ‘em Up" I can recommend this. Just don’t expect it to sit in your consciousness for too long after you’ve seen it.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been mastered using AVC MPEG-4 codec compression. There's really only one word to describe this transfer - "wow," the image is fantastically sharp and the detail is outstanding, right down to the imperfections of our star's skin, sweat, tattoos, textures, etc. Both foreground and background detail looks great, the effects come across flawlessly as well and don't appear too fake. The image is crisp and colors are vivid and bold especially black levels. Grain is minimal, skin tones appear natural, depth is excellent, overall we're talking about a top notch effort.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 presented at 48kHz/24-bit as well as French DTS 5.1 and Spanish DTS 5.1 surround tracks. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD audio. Much like the image the audio will impress. First off, it's loud and aggressive, just what you want from a hyper-action film such as this. The action scenes are incredible in their immersiveness enveloping the viewer in the carnage, bullet shots, explosions, cars chases, trains going over a cliff, heads getting blown off, etc. There's an incredible amount of depth and range to this track. Meanwhile, dialogue is clear and distortion free, ambient sounds are effective, the music pumps loudly and it all serves to put you right in the middle of it all. Optional subtitles are included in English, French and Spanish.
Extras
Universal has included an alternate opening, an extended scene, many featurettes, plus some U-control features, BD-Live and a digital copy of the film. Below is a closer look at these supplements. DISC ONE: First up is an alternate opening that runs for 2 minutes 38 seconds and takes us into the history of the Fraternity. There's an extended scene that runs for 1 minute 58 seconds, which features more of Wesley undergoing his training by the Fraternity in order to get him ready to become the assassin he's destined to be. The first featurette is entitled "Cast and Characters" which runs for 19 minutes 59 seconds, in this clip we get an in-depth look at the film's characters and the actors that play them. It's basically EPK talking head stuff as they talk about their characters, motivations and all that stuff. "Stunts on the L Train" featurette runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds, this short clip takes a look at the how the filmmakers shot the sequence on a soundstage as the stunt team does their thing. "Special Effects: The Art of the Impossible" is the next featurette which runs for 8 minutes 27 seconds, this clip takes a closer look at the special effects of the film which were achieved in-camera, physical effects are tools that are sadly being phased out for more CG based effects but it's cool to see this film utilize some practical effects fused with some CG enhancement. This clip shows fans how those effects were staged. "Groundbreaking Visual Effects: From Imagination to Execution" featurette runs for 8 minutes 6 seconds, we've seen the practical now this is about the visual CG effects that were used to sell certain shots. Here we get a look at some key sequences and how CG effects turned them into the memorable scenes they became. I personally love these features as they delve into the mechanics of these sequences but it could have been a bit longer than just over 8 minutes. "Origins of Wanted: Bringing the Graphic Novel to Life" featurette runs for 8 minutes 5 seconds, and this takes a look at how the film was developed, the script adapted from the comic, even though there was little taken from the original source material, but we get a look at the changes that were made for the film. "Through the Eyes of Visionary Director Timur Bekmambetov" featurette is a 9 minute 5 second fluff piece about how great the director is. It's a back-patting feature where the key members of the film talk about working with the filmmaker and talk about his unique vision among other things. The filmmaker takes us into his mindset on the creativity of the film and of course his "vision". "Wanted: Motion Comics" featurette runs for 13 minutes 55 seconds, basically is an animated comic as it takes pages from the original comic and puts in into a reel with some recorded voice actors bringing the pages to life, so to speak. It's a neat feature but it would be cooler if Universal had included all of the original comics here for fans to read through. "Making of Wanted: The Game" featurette runs for 10 minutes 1 seconds, this clip isn't really for me and it comes across as an infomercial for the video game, fans get a look at the development of the game but it's not really that interesting unless you really care about video game creation. There are a series of Blu-ray exclusive features that include some U-Control features that require a profile 2.0 player, at this time these extras are unreviewed as this reviewer does not have a profile 2.0 player at this time. However, the extras in this section include the following: - Picture-in-Picture commentary which features additional interviews and behind-the-scenes footage while you watch the film. - Assassin Profiles, allows you to access information about the characters. - Motion Comics, allows you to access more interactive comic segments. There's also some BD-Live accessibility, this allows fans to connect online, where you can watch the film with others, chat and buy some stuff from the Universal store among other things. Finally the disc features "My Scenes" bookmarks which allows you to bookmark your favorite scenes from the film for quick access. DISC TWO: This disc features a digital copy of the film for your portable devices.
Packaging
These discs are packaged in a 2-disc standard Blu-ray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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