I saw the midnight viewing of the movie Wanted last night and I found it to be pretty awesome. I won’t spoil too much, but it includes all of director Timur Bekmambetov’s favorite themes: father/son relationships, superhuman abilities, fate, and ancient races charged with maintaining the balance of good and evil in humanity. I love the overwhelmingly Russian fatalism and mysticism. I think Wanted is at least as good as his massive overseas hit Night Watch, if not better. (Day Watch was a disappointing follow-up.)
It’s certainly a stylized, suspension-of-disbelief affair, but I found the characters to be compelling and the action, with the exception of a few overblown sequences, to favor suspense over explosion (there were plenty of explosions for sure).
I really hope directors from around the world follow Bekmambetov’s lead and incorporate their cultural fables and literary themes into American-style, action-fantasy-sci-fi films.