I went in expecting a brainless action film—and twenty minutes into it, I was disappointed that Wanted met my expectations. I wanted Wanted to be a better movie. By the climax, the story becomes pointless when you question its logic or religious symbolism. By the end, I realized the movie is chock-full of action scenes, but a generally ridiculous, although entertaining, package of visual stimuli.

Based on a graphic novel (a.k.a. comic book) by James Millar, the story follows Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a bitter, broke office drone completely dissatisfied with his less-than-mediocre life. His day-to-day routine is spiced with frequent panic attacks, an obnoxious foul-mouthed office boss, and a live-in girlfriend who is sleeping with his co-worker and best friend ("best" implies some sort of good relationship, but this guy is a total jerk!).

Almost nothing seems to stand between Wesley and suicide until one night, on a mission to score some more panic-attack medication, he meets Fox (as in "crazy like an Angelina Jolie"), a tattered, wife-beater-wearing killer with a big gun and too much eye shadow. Jolie seems to like this type of more-fatale-than-femme character, the untouchable sexpot-with-a-gun. Seriously, the role of Fox doesn't require much from her other than a bit of brawling, standing, and glaring at things, occasionally with a finger in her mouth... and spouting terrible dialogue.

Part of that dialogue includes telling Wesley that his father was recently murdered by a fellow assassin and rogue member of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old religious cult of assassins who take their orders directly from fate through a loom, interpreted by their leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Wesley was apparently born with mad assassin skills and Fox recruits him.

So Wesley gets to break out of his shell and take control of his life, releasing his inner killer with the help of The Fraternity's brutal training. He too begins carrying out the orders given by the loom of fate, eager to find the man who killed his father and betrayed the brethren

Wesley's transformation is a bit extreme—from a passive push-over to a vengeful assassin. We're supposed to believe that the knack for skilled murder has been inside him all along. I suppose it's believable, since from the beginning of the film McAvoy convincingly plays Wesley with a seething, inner rage that causes the panic attacks when confronted with a maniacal boss or backstabbing best friend. Wesley just needed The Fraternity to come and set him free.

And this is where the not-so-subtle religious subtext comes in. Allow me to make some connections: The Fraternity (the church) is led by the prophet-like Sloan (Jesus), who sends the assassins (the 12 disciples) out into the world to carry out fate's (God's) orders found in the secret code of the loom (a sort of Scripture). Sloan even mentions to Wesley that the assassins are like apostles spreading their gospel.

Why do they kill people, you ask? Well, simply because the loom tells them to, silly. To be fair, though, there is a brief and emotional reasoning behind the no-questions-asked approach to all the killing. Because of a tragic event in Fox's past, she has learned that what she is doing is actually keeping balance to the world, and Wesley must unquestioningly follow suit.

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