Wanting to avoid the opening-weekend crowds I took off Friday afternoon and watched Wall-E at Metrotown, and afterwards Mel got off early and we both saw Wanted.
Going to see Pixar’s latest movie is pretty much a no-brainer. Even the not-great like “Cars” are worth seeing, and the trailers for Wall-E were simple and intriguing. I was prepared for a charming tale about a robot alone on an overly polluted earth with his cockroach friends.
What I wasn’t prepared for was an amazing science-fiction story. I had no idea where the movie was heading thanks to avoiding of many of the trailers, and I’m so happy for that. The pacing of the movie is so perfect that I wonder if that can only be done with a CGi movie. The first part is what you’ve seen in most of the trailers — Wall-E and his cockroach friend alone on a deserted Earth, and that lasts just as long as required to show you how lonely and clever and nice Wall-E is.
Then the movie shakes this up a bit, and then again, and again. I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, so get out there! Wall-E is easily the best movie of the year and is a must-see for everyone. 5/5!
“Wanted” is based on a six-issue comic series — one that I’m a big fan of. The comic is incredibly dark, violent and unapologetic about a world where supervillains have already banded together to kill off every single superhero and then rule the world. They can do whatever they want, and it’s into this setting that loser Wesley Gibson is thrust when he’s told that he’s the bastard son of the now dead “The Killer” and must assume his place.
When I had heard Hollywood had changed “supervillains ruling the world” to “a secret society of assassins who kill to maintain order” I think I threw up in my mouth a little, and then I got angry.. and then I realized that’s what Hollywood does and accepted it and decided I wouldn’t go see it.
But then the reviews started trickling in. When I first checked it was at 90% (with only about 10 reviews, granted) on RottenTomatoes and the negative review just didn’t like how violent and nasty it was. Wait a minute, that’s what I was worried they’d take out!
More reviews and more good ones, though it’s now down to 72% on RottenTomatoes that’s still a respectable score, especially for an action movie. Again, most of the negatives didn’t like the ultraviolence, so we decided to see it. I went in both hopeful and worried.
They kept a lot of the good scenes in the comic, expanded or trimmed to fit the movie. They changed a lot too, such as the world setup I previously mentioned, but I can understand why. A supervillain-run world would involve way too much exposition and backstory for one movie, and the changes they made work very well.
The action is phenomenal, the characters are interesting, and there’s some nasty, brutal humour in there too. There’s also balls-to-the-wall ass-kicking vengeance. The movie spares no time explaining why Wesley and the other members of “The Fraternity” can do the things they do — shoot around corners, shoot bullets out of the air, crash through plate glass without a scratch — they just get on with doing it and it’s incredible fun.
It’s Rated R so it’s not for everyone, but if you like action and don’t mind seeing bullets shoot out through foreheads you’ll really enjoy this movie. 4/5.
What’s really surprising is that these two incredibly different movies share a main moral. Yes, Wanted has a moral, and it’s driven home in the very last line of the movie, and it’s one of the same messages in Wall-E. I won’t spoil it — see both movies and you’ll see what I mean.
Yes, it’s Canada Day, and I do love the country I’m in, especially when I compare it to what’s going on with my neighbours to the south. Hey, have you guys got habeus corpus back yet? I hear rights are good…
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