I was rather surprised by this movie. I never had high expectations for it mainly because it's based off a graphic novel and those tend to not turn out so well.

Although there are a few parts that stand out as odd compared with the rest of the movie, Wanted was an excellent surprise.

The movie starts the over-the-top action sequences right from the beginning. We are treated to a man who apparently has an enourmous amount of strength; enough to run down a highrise hallway, jump through a window without harm, shoot bad guys as he sails across the void to the neighboring building and land safely. This obvious bad ass cracks a joke about sending sheep to kill the wolf when he is promptly shot in the back of the head by a guy from what appears to be several miles away.

We then meet Wesley who is a waste of space. He has a job he hates, an abusing boss he hates more, a friend he should hate and a girlfriend who cheats on him with his friend. He's always felt he was meant for more but has always been unable to make that leap to attempt something better. He gets anxiety attacks for which he takes medication, so everyone sees him as weak including himself.

He soon meets Fox, played by Angeline Jolie in her typical action hero role, who tells him he is the son of one of the world's best assassins and he needs to avenge his murder. An intense shootout and chase scene ensues.

Wesley learns about the Fraternity, a long running assassins guild that operates based on fate. By complicated measures involving a giant loom, people's names are pulled from random errors in cloth as it is being weaved. The order had decided that this meant those people should be killed for whatever reason. A man named Sloan explains all this and is the person that interprets the thread. It struck me as odd that the fraternity started out with a group who interpret the threads and now we have one guy. That's a lot of power for one guy considering he's ordering highly trained assassins to go out and kill people. We find out why later.

It is never explained exactly how the order decided that the names in the thread represent people that should be killed. It's just assumed it's the proper thing to do I guess. I wonder if they considered whether it meant these people should be given a party or something. But I suppose that wouldn't make for a good story. There are hints as to why they would have made this decision but is never properly explored. We later learn that if the threads are ignored then bad things tend to happen. Just a quick remark about noticing the relation of names of historic evil people would have sufficed.

Sloan explains to Wesley that he is one of the few people in the world that have the ability to enhancetheir perception of time by an increase in heart rate and adrenaline. Wesley always thought of it as anxiety attacks. This ability allows these people to quickly assess the current situation and decide on a course of action. The guy's super strength from the beginning of the movie is not explained nor repeated. Kind of stands out after the fact. Another ability is to be able to curve the path of a bullet so a target can be hit despite being blocked. While this is cool and sets up some great shots in the film, there is no attempt whatsoever to explain how they do it. Apparently the laws of physics do not apply if you have a high heart rate.

Wesley has been recruited to hunt down and kill the traitor that is killing off the guild's assassins. This includes Wesley's father who he is told was the super guy from the beginning. He then goes through severe training that we see through the normal montage. Once he is ready he is set loose to avenge his father and complete a series of assassinations through overly complicated, yet cool, means.

Most of what happens from here was rather predictable but I still enjoyed it. I even guessed the big twist about ten minutes before it was revealed because it's standard fare for this type of story, no real surprise.

Some characters are revealed to be bad guys that the thread deems to be killed but I didn't exactly agree with it. It turns out these people were doing evil things because they were being manipulated by someone else who knew the truth. If that was the case then it seems odd they were marked to be killed instead of just the guy that was giving the orders. Would have been better if it had been suggested these people knew what they were doing wasn't exactly kosher.

A surprising sacrifice that totally redeems a character was done in a very interesting way towards the end. It was surprising but very consistent for what they had established for the character.

The movie ends with a nice scene that heavily suggests sequels which I would like to see. If you like action movies then I highly recommend seeing this one.