Wanted (18)

Jul 1 2008 By Roz Laws

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IF you want to make a great comic book fi m, put a class actor in the leading role.

Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining without Robert Downey Jr and Ed Norton. So it was an inspired move casting James McAvoy in Wanted.

After wowing us in The Last King Of Scotland and Atonement, we knew he’d be good, but who knew he could be such a hunk?

He plays bored Chicago accountant Wesley Gibson, who has anxiety attacks and whose life has no meaning until Fox (Angelina Jolie) tells him his father was one of the greatest assassins who ever lived.

It turns out Wesley has inherited a few skills, which are honed by new boss Morgan Freeman in the obligatory training montage.

Soon he’s curving bullets round obstacles and breaking the laws of physics in a cool, Matrix-like way.

There’s a bit of silliness about the names of targets being sent through code in woven cloth – they’re literally taking orders from a loom – but generally it’s a decent plot with a good twist, and a lot less confusing than The Matrix.

You’ll want to applaud two highly satisfying scenes, where Wesley snaps and tells his awful boss where to go, and where he makes his cheating girlfriend jealous by snogging Fox. And the action scene where a train falls off the track into a mountain gorge is spectacular.

It would have been even better, and achieved a wider audience, if they’d toned down the relentless violence and settled for a 15 certificate, but that’s about my only complaint.