Crazy, Mindless Fun

(May contain spoilers)

Watched Wanted today. It was cold inside the cinema (or maybe I was just chilling from the rainy condition outside and I just had a cold drink). Good thing I had the sense to buy a cup of steaming coffee from Burger King. The coffee is more than OK, by the way. I was glad that the line at Starbucks was so long; it saved me almost half the price of coffee.

Anyway, back to the movie. I must say it’s one worth watching at the cinemas just for the fun of it. Because it was cool, wicked fun, and I’m not one who usually line up for action flicks. I’m not sure if it’s fair for me to say that the movie has no substance whatsoever. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed being inside Glorietta Cinema 3 (which I’ll again promote for being one of the best cinemas out there; I paid P160 at MoA when I watched Kung Fu Panda and the extra P10 for this THX cinema was so well worth it for the immense difference in overall viewing experience) for the duration of the film, although a few hours after watching, there’s nothing much to look back and get excited about anymore. Wanted is all action; it’s about the adrenaline rush, the Matrix-like scenarios, the impossible stunts; it’s about guns and knives, fast cars and trains; it’s about people beating each other up and killing in cold blood; it’s about Angelina Jolie. I do like James McAvoy (loved him in Becoming Jane, liked him in Atonement) and he was a good fit for the character Wesley. Morgan Freeman is, well, Morgan Freeman. But it is Angelina Jolie who lights up the screen. She gives us another kick-ass heroine that is as believable as the choreographed fight scenes. But no matter how underdeveloped the character is (which doesn’t really matter because of the film’s very simple plot), you’ll pine for her. I swear I heard more than a few swoons when in one scene, the camera pans to Fox (Jolie) giving out an amused, condescending smile, head tilted and body all poised and confident. Team Aniston must be weeping when they saw that. It is a testament to Jolie’s star power that in this film where anybody can die as fast as you can swat a fly, Fox cannot be killed, unless it’s by her own hands. I think people don’t really expect substance from this movie. But if you’re expecting to see a bare-back Angelina Jolie, you won’t leave the movie house disappointed.