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It’s been a while since I wrote one of these reviews - particularly one that I decided to “feature”. It’s also been a while since I watched something at the cinema and immediately decided I needed to see it again. In that sense, it seems fitting that Wanted marks my return.

Have you seen that Michael Bay advert? It’s the one where Bay proclaims that everything should be “Awesome“. That’s kind of how Wanted feels - everything needs to be Awesome. Yes, with a capital A.

There are huge parallels with the first Matrix movie here - just the first one, before they fell in love with their own mythology and the trilogy essentially disappeared up its own arse - in that it takes a very normal, insignificant guy, who works in a Dilbert-esque cubicle, and turns him into a superhero.

The difference here is, we care about that guy. OK, Neo was cool, but we didn’t spend enough time with him to really care. Wanted’s resident nobody Wesley Gibson basically has no life. His job sucks, his girlfriend and best mate both think he’s a joke, he’s broke, he lives in a shitty little apartment, and wonders why he bothers to get out of bed in the morning. Did Neo feel like this? No idea, we weren’t given time to find out.

And the fact that we get to see so much of Wesley’s life before his transformation, means that when he takes his life back - or perhaps more accurately gets a life - we’re cheering him along. There’s a moment with a Microsoft Natural Keyboard that I’m sure will put a large smile on the face of many a frustrated computer user. I’ve owned one of those things…they could do some damage.

And thanks to director Timur Bekmambetov - best known for Night Watch and Day Watch - when Wesley does turn into a superhero it feels, like I mentioned before, Awesome. Wesley is recruited into The Fraternity - a 1000 year old club of elite assassins, led by God himself Morgan Freeman. After which much plot twistyness ensues.

We don’t have to wait for the Awesomeness though; it begins early on with an introductory sequence featuring Doomsday’s stern-faced David O’Hara - is it just me, or does it seem like a real effort for that guy to talk? - which sets the tone for the rest of the film really.

Then there’s that sequence with Angelina and the car (although the actuality of it is even more Awesome than the trailer suggests), and from their the action never really lets up.

No zero to hero movie is complete without a training montage, and Wanted is no exception, but thanks to a particular plot device which allows characters to heal extremely rapidly, here the training is more grueling than usual. In fact, most of the film’s highly stylized action is pretty violent, earning Wanted an 18 rating in the UK, which doesn’t happen very often these days. It’s certainly not the brief glimpse of Angelina Jolie’s buttocks that influenced the censor’s decision - there’s no gratuitous sex on display here, just gratuitous, glorious, slo-mo, cgi-enhanced violence.

There’s a climactic gun battle that just feels like John Woo dining out with The Wachowskis on a large helping of Alex Proyas’ Crow stew. It’s so well shot, well choreographed, and so grin-inducingly cool that it just makes you beg for the DVD release (or bluray) - I wanted to watch that scene over and over again. Thinking back, it strikes me that there’s lots of scenes like that, which probably explains the desire to wander straight back into a repeat screening.

McAvoy is superb as Wesley, convincingly pulling off the action set-pieces, whilst at the same time adding a depth that’s usually lacking in characters of this type. Jolie doesn’t get a great deal to do, but what she does do is pleasing if you’re a fan. She’s essentially called upon to look good, fire a big gun every now and then, and offer a chunk of exposition to explain why The Fraternity’s members follow their orders to the letter. And she has to kiss McAvoy in one of the most gratuitous slow-mo snogging scenes I’ve ever witnessed.

The supporting cast don’t really stand out, but do a good job nonetheless (including Night Watch’s own Konstantin Khabensky), and Danny Elfman’s score is appropriate and excellent in equal measure; there’s even an Elfman vocal on the very catchy track “Little Things”.

I don’t know whether Wanted is likely to turn into a franchise - the film’s last few scenes would suggest not - but it stands alone as one of the most entertaining entries in its genre. It feels very much like the Matrix for grown-ups - there’s even shades of Fight Club in there - and I can whole heartedly recommend it.

Like I said, I want to see it again asap.