Wanted

The Matrix was a kick ass film. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions I still thought were good, but not quite as good as The Matrix. But then I loved the whole Matrix universe. However, most people thought that the two sequels sucked because most people aren't Matrix geeks. Good news for them, this film will remind you of the first Matrix film.

At first I only really thought that it looked visually like The Matrix, but then I thought about it and it seemed pretty much like The Matrix on every other level as well. That is not necessarily a bad thing though since as I've already said, The Matrix kicked ass. Whilst Wanted isn't quite as good as The Matrix it is still a pretty good film.

An interesting thing I read on Internet Movie Database was a quote from the director of Wanted. Whether or not he was talking about Wanted though, I'm not sure. But anyway, the quote read: "...but the most powerful special effect is the actor. All the visual style is an extension of character." If that is the case then this film certainly has a lot of character extension. But to be honest, the extension seemed to be on what they could do. But when he says, "the most powerful special effect is the actor" I'm not sure that really plays across in this film because there wasn't really a lot in terms of character development and therefore you could have replaced the actors with bad actors and it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.

James McAvoy plays the character of Wesley Gibson who could be compared to Neo from The Matrix. Angelina Jolie plays the dominatrix character called The Fox and could be compared to Trinity. Morgan Freeman plays the character of Sloan which could be compared to either Morpheus of Agent Smith. And then there is the rest of the gang who play the rest of the crew from the Nebuchadnezzar (Morpheus' ship). However, the characters from Wanted seem to play toned down versions of the characters from The Matrix when it comes to them as people.

But if all you're after is an action film and you don't particularly care about the character development then you're in luck. However, if what you're after is a realistic action film then you'd better sit this one out. With crazy things such as a man jumping out of a skyscraper window and making it to the other side of the street, people curving bullets around objects and some crazy car stunts that could only exist in The Matrix; this film is all about what looks cool.

Now for the real Matrix comparison.

SPOILERS: The film starts off in the same office like environment as The Matrix as we see Wesley in his little cubical at work. We find out his life is shit just like Neo's is. (Although Wesley isn't living two different lives.) Wesley gets shot at in a shop by the bad guy and saved by The Fox. Whilst Neo finds Agents coming into his office and tries to escape but sadly gets caught, but is then released where Trinity finds him and saves him from that bug thing in his stomach. The Fox introduces Wesley to Sloan and the rest of the gang. Trinity introduces Neo to Morpheus and the rest of the crew. Wesley goes into a state of denial as to who he is. Neo goes into a state of denial that he is the one. Wesley realises his full potential. Neo realises his full potential. Wesley goes to avenge his real fathers death by killing Sloan. Neo tries to save Morpheus by killing Agent Smith. But before Wesley can kill Sloan he has to get into the building and so manages to jump in through the window and run through a load of bad guys killing them all, with his first shots being two machine guns which he uses to kill the two people to his side buy switching his hands over. Before Neo can kill Agent Smith he has to get into the building and so enters the lobby with all the pillars, the metal detector goes off and Neo kills the guard in front of him, he then uses two machine guns to kill the two guards to his side buy switching his hands over. Wesley kills Sloan. Neo kills Agent Smith. The End.

The Matrix was released in 1999 and Wanted was obviously released in 2008. However, Wanted is based on a mini-series of comics created by Mark Millar. So the obvious question is, which came first? The Matrix or the Wanted comics? Well I can say with great pleasure that the winner is The Matrix. The Wanted comics where published in 2003, four years after The Matrix.