Wanted Review (The Matrix Re-Reloaded)

Well let me first say that I had major pre-conceived notions going into this movie.

It’s based on a series of comic books by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones (two of my absolute favorite people working in comics today). I loved the book, it’s a 5 out of 5 for me in every sense of the word. The story is brilliant, in the book, yet when it got translated to film, the magic was lost for me. Everything I liked about the book, was changed for the film. Angelina Jolie’s character in the book looked exactly like Halle Berry from Catwoman (black, short hair, cat-like ears), Morgan Freeman’s character didn’t exist in the book.

And that’s where this movie went wrong for me. I wanted an adaptation of the book I loved so much and instead got The Matrixwith Angelina Jolie instead of Carrie-Anne Moss and Morgan Freeman in place of Laurence Fishburne. Exact same premise, a loser gets plucked out of his worthless existence to find he’s “The One”. I’m sorry but if I want to see a bad Matrix movie, I’ll watch The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

The action is unbelievable in a bad way (they don’t set up the rules for the universe, then seem to break the laws of physics at every turn). Angelina Jolie is getting too old for this type of action role (although there was a nice butt shot of her ) and needs to hang up her “Tomb Raider” mentality. The twist in the story left me unsatisfied on many levels, and I don’t know why they even bothered to call this movie “Wanted” since it has so little to do with the source material. I can understand making changes to a comic to film adaptation, I get it, what works in a comic book doesn’t always work in a film, but the amount of things they changed in this made it seem like it was based more off “The Matrix” than the source material.

The thing that saddens me even more is that the author, Mark Millar, has come out in numerous interviews online in defense of the movie. Everything I’ve read has sounded totally non-genuine and much more like he’s just trying to promote the movie and make more money. Very disappointed in you Mr. Millar. I would highly recommend you read the Wanted comic book (which is now collected in paperback and hardcover form).

It would be a much better way to spend 2 hours of your life.

 

A 2…..out of 5

- Justincredible