A surprise smash hit

If you prefer your action movie plots with a gracious helping of brains, when you hear about a movie starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, a little angel of cynicism appears on your shoulder. You could watch the “shooting fish in a barrel” episode of MythBusters and have twice as much fun, right? Surprisingly, no.

The trailer gives no sign of  what “Wanted” contains: a dark, self-deprecating humor that breaks through the fourth wall and laughs at its audience members, reminding them that they’re watching a movie that delivers high-caliber action that often resonates on a character level.

But as fun as the action scenes are, they aren’t the film’s greatest strength; it’s the workplace comedy that has more in common with “Office Space” than the glib “Lethal Weapon”/ “Die Hard” one-liners that are action movies’ token attempts at lightening the mood with humor besides otherwise noticing the deranged and psychotic nature of the protagonist.

Unfortunately, “Wanted” forgets the humor for a significant portion of the movie, and it invites even more comparisons to the aging “Matrix”; a contest it would win if it had stuck to the dark comedy it achieves so well at the beginning and concludes with so strongly at the end. Instead, it reaches for a story of intrigue and sacrifice that’s antithetical to the wry sarcasm that bookends the narrative, as if “Snatch” had got to thinking it was the “Hamlet” of action flicks.

These are all plot problems that usually result in an average movie. What elevates “Wanted” is a commitment throughout to Wesley’s character (James McAvoy). His journey is fun, his antics never cease to entertain and unlike Shia Labeouf in last summer’s “Transformers,” he doesn’t wear out his welcome; rather, he becomes an active agent in the resolution. The film is clever, hip, and, despite my preconceptions, the most entertaining film I’ve seen this summer.