Reception
The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 72% based on reviews from 193 critics, with a rating average of 6.5 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that "Wanted is a fast-paced, crackling thrill ride tailor-made for the Summer audience." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 0—100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 64 based on 38 reviews.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly encapsulated many critics' views, saying "Wanted is kind of unintelligible and idiotic. Also kind of nasty and brutish. And also undeniably kind of fun..." Likewise, Tom Long of The Detroit News said, "Wanted may be the most absolutely stone bonkers, crazy-good movie of the century. Or it may be a gargantuan piece of trash. Chances are it's a combination of the two. But man, does it rock." Claudia Puig of USA Today found the "thrilling stunts and hyperkinetic action scenes the undisputed stars of this surprisingly entertaining film." Conversely, John Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle denounced those same attributes, saying, "If Maxim magazine ever decides to branch out into filmmaking, Wanted is just the kind of ear-throttling nonsense it's bound to produce," and David Fear of Time Out New York called it "the cinematic equivalent of an energy drink. The film keeps artificially pumping your adrenal glands with mindless, malnutritional sensations, only to leave you crampy and cranky minutes later. ...his exercise in ultraviolence then insults us by having a beaten, bloodied McAvoy inform viewers that he used to be a loser 'just like all of you.'" Frank Lovece of Film Journal International, one of few mainstream critics to have read the comic-book miniseries, said the film compared poorly with the source material. Noting that the hero in the comic goes even further, "breaking the fourth wall and positioning himself so that he's 'prison-raping' and taunting the reader for having liked the series," Lovece found that, "While Millar may have contempt for his readers—and, by extension, the medium in which he works—at least he has his own vision, and gets it across with style and wit" that the movie lacked. Roger Ebert of Ebert & Roeper said "Wanted slams the pedal to the metal and never slows down. Here’s an action picture that’s exhausting in its relentless violence and its ingenuity in inventing new ways to attack, defend, ambush and annihilate," while Richard Roeper said, "It’s made for fans of films that really just want to see some great visuals, some amazing sequences and some terrific performances."
In the comics press, Erik Amaya of Comic Book Resources said, "The film's biggest faults lie in how far it strays from the source," and that, "If you've ever seen any movie about leather-clad assassins, you already know how this film plays out. The speed and skill of the movie-making balance out those faults, however." Tom McLean of Newsarama noted that while the story deviated strongly from the source, the movie "stands out as a highly entertaining action film that preserves the comic's core premise and cheeky attitude while taking the story into very different but still satisfying territory."
Among European critics, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said, "It looks as if it has been written by a committee of 13-year-old boys for whom penetrative sex is still only a rumour, and the resulting movie plays like a party political broadcast on behalf of the misogynist party," concluding, "In an ideal world, the title would have the word 'Not' tacked on to the front." Kim Newman, writing in Empire, praised Bekmambetov as "the most exciting action-oriented emigré since John Woo," and commented that the film's gruesome violence "hint at the comic's uncomfortable suggestion that escapism is merely a licence to become monstrous."
Wanted won the Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi / Superhero Movie of 2008. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing (Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt); the Critics Choice Award for Best Action Movie, the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, three MTV Movie Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble.
Read more about this topic: Wanted (2008 Film)
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