Wanted: A Faithful Comic Book Adaptation

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today...

Yesterday I watched a couple of superhero movies. It was an interesting perspective to watch. On one hand we had Wanted. Staring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. On the other hand we had Hancock, starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron. Two movies that were, okay but missed the mark for different reasons. Before I get into it, yes, there will be spoilers so you'll probably want to stop reading here if you haven't seen Wanted specifically... i don't even know if I'll get to Hancock.

ITS RANT TIME!

Wanted is based off of one of my favorite comic books of the same name. Written by comic's scribe Mark Millar. Wanted is a tale of escapism, a tale of an ordinary joe like you and me being given an opportunity to become something greater than he truly imagined. The comic paints a dark tale of the depths of human depravity. We witness Wesley slowly transitioned from a spineless weasel to a fully testosteroned killing machine. Mark Millar's penchant for cinematic storytelling really helps the comic feel like you're watching a movie. The beautiful art by artist J.G. Jones is also one of the corner stones of the comic's strength.

The movie starts out much like the comic. Helmed by russian director and visual mastermind Timur Bekmambetov. director of russian vampire films that everyone needst to watch. Night Watch and Day Watch. Wanted starts out with Wesley Gibson sitting in his office, speaking about how he hates his life. The beginning of the movie is like watching the comic book come to life and if you're like me, you feel kind of giddy watching it.

As the story continues, Wesley is confronted by a lovely lady named "Fox" who tells him that somebody is trying to kill him. Fox introduces Wesley to Sloan, the leader of The Fraternity. A guild of assassins who bring down the hammer of fate. I won't go to far into it but let me just say that they listen to weaves of thread... its dumb. He's unconvinced of Sloan and his fraternity so he goes home to sleep it off. Waking to find the very gun in his pants that he'd used the night before to shoot the wings off of flies at gun point (a scene they lifted right from the comic book). It's at this point Wesley starts believing that there may be more truth to the Fraternity than he'd oribginally imagined.

Wesley takes stress pills due to completing the repetitive tasks of his job all day long. His manager, an overweight woman who has a penchant for the mean, looms over Wesley and begins to berate him for his work ethic in the beginning of what is probably the most enjoying scene in the movie to watch. Wesley proceeds to tell his boss to shut the fuck up, and then further on goes to tell her how her entire staff hates her, and if she wasn't such a fat bitch they would simply pity her for being so useless. After putting his boss in her place, Wesley grabs his keyboard and strikes it across the face of one of his co-workers who was fucking his girlfriend.

ANYWAY. Wesley eventually comes around and decides to learn the ways of the fraternity. Being punched in the face, being taught how to shoot human targets, taught how to sword fight. He is given a crash course in Assassination 101. They're training him to kill the man who killed his father. Sloan, the best assassin in the fraternity who'se gone rogue. Finally, Wesley feels that he's ready to take Sloan out and he goes to confront him. One intense action scene on a moving train later. Wesley gets the kill, only to find out that he did not kill the man who killed his father but he'd killed his father himself. The fraternity pulled a quick one on ol' Wesley. Wesley learns the truth and decides he needs to get vengeance for his father.

The story diverges from the comic pretty much as soon as Angelina Jolie enters the fray and from there you're lead on an action roller coaster unlike we've experienced in this new age of CGI. Its intense and relentless. It's pretty awesome to watch but holds little to no resonance if you happen to be a fan of the comic. If you're a fan of action flicks, it's a home run. I can't help but imagine how amazing the movie could've been if they followed the comic.

The comic is much different, although it begins similarly as I mentioned above. Wesley is a common joe like you or me. He hates his life, his job, he hates his girlfriend that cheats on him with his best friend and co-worker. The whole idea is that super-villains, not assassains, decided to band together and use their vast powers to eliminate the world's superheroes and rewrite reality in a darker image. Leaving superheroes to be remembered as vague fiction, like they are in the real world. leaving a cabal of villains to run the world from behind the scenes.

Wesley learns that his recently assassinated father was a super-villain named "The Killer" and that Wesley inherited his perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon from his father. He enters this new life and must deal now with the most dangerous and lethal people in the world. When Wesley meets Fox, he quits his job and joins the fraternity. He goes through a period of training where he's desensitised to violence. Tied up to a chair just like in the film but told that "he had to get rid of that faggoty fear of being punched in the face sometime" a classic line they neglected to use in the movie during the same scene. He's also given license to fufill every desire he's had. Which includes rape, radically motivated violence and random murder. He goes on to sever his connections to his past life by breaking up with his girlfriend and killing the best friend that she was cheating on him with. He becomes the bodyguard of a super scientist named "Professor Seltzer" who is one of the five, the leading council of the fraternity.

At a council meeting, the main antagonist of the comic book "Mister Rictus" a man who appears to have no skin and bears a skeletal appearance, calls a vote that the Fraternity come forward as the ruling body of the earth. When Wesley encounters Rictus at this meeting my favorite dialog of the comic occurs where Wesley tells Rictus to "Eat shit, sheep fucker." Where Rictus retorts. "I dont fuck sheep, I make love to them."

The vote is defeated narrowly due to hypnotic manipulation by another of The five, "The Emperor". Rictus is tired of hiding in the shadows and also feels he drew the short stick by ontrolling only Australia. He has the professor executed by a lackey of his named Shithead, a creature made of the shit of the evilist people in history. "Death by dysentery!" he screams before drowning the professor in the back of his own limozine... He also has Wesley and Fox marked for death. Wesley strikes back by infiltrating the Fraternities north american headquarters. Killing many villains and Mister Rictus.

After he killed him, Wesley learns that his father is alive and well. The original Killer goes on to explain that he faked his death and got wesley to join the Fraternity to make Wesley into a man. After a little heart-to-heart he tells Wesley that the final step of his training is that he must kill his Father. Telling Wesley that he 'can't handle the idea of not being the best'. Wesley obliges after resisting and tells Fox that he's returning to his former life of msery. After expressing disbelief the Fox realizes he's joking. The ending of the comic is somewhat like the movie. The movie has Wesley breaking the fourth wall in a monologue, saying that he's taking control of his life, what the fuck are we doing? In the comic the ending is a little less tactful, with the final page having Wesley scream "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass."

The movie doesn't hold a candle to the comic book, which sucks. Comic book fans will not get anything out of this movie. But hopefully movie goers who haven't been exposed to the comic will watch the movie and be blown away. And maybe even go out and find the comic book in the local book store and read it. The only good thing about the saturation of hollywood into the comic book industry is that maybe, just maybe, more people will start reading the comic books that only a small chunk of society holds so dear.

The comic is an uncompromising thrill ride. An exciting tale of escapism and action. In this sense, the movie and the book are the same. But it's really the only similarities they share.

Sorry about the spoilers but until next time....

PEACE!