I try to only read reviews of movies after I see them. So it was only today that I allowed myself to read the NYT review of the movie, Wanted, that I and the gf watched Friday, which was, btw, opening night. I’ve been waiting on this movie for months and couldn’t wait another day to see it!!!!!!
I loved the movie and could talk about it and my favorite scenes forever. Apparently, lots of people disagree with me and expect to see the meaning of life when they go to the movies. They get upset when the movie delivers gun fights, knife fights, people getting hit with computer keyboards, my wife; Angelina Jolie, slow-motion bullets, big-ass guns, car chases, and Morgan Freedman as god. But I say, hello!!! What else could one want in a movie?
Needless to say, I kind of liked it, lol. But for those people, who need their movies to be meaningful, there was something in this movie for them as well.
This movie was all about a cube-dwelling corporate hack, Wesley, played by James McAvoy, whose life COM-PLETELY sucked and how he gained control of himself and his life to become a kick-ass assassin. (Don’t hate, I wanted to be a hit woman when I was a kid).
I mean this kid was a self-proclaimed loser with a cheating girlfriend, a horrible best friend, zero money, no charisma, and a boss who thought it was ok to snap a stapler at his ear and harass the crap out of him daily.
So anyway, amid the gunfights, knife fights, car chases and other adrenaline junkie stuff, Wesley transformed himself from an anxiety-ridden unfulfilled nobody into bullet-curving super-awesome cool guy. It was a pretty amazing transformation.
He worked hard; he focused, he got his ass kicked daily by the people who were trying to teach him. He learned how to shoot, how to kill people with knives, he learned how not to feel pain, he even learned to how to control his anxiety.
The audience was soooo behind him. It was amazing to me how many people, myself included, really related to the meaninglessness of this guy’s life. Obviously, there are lots of cube jockeys working unfulfilled jobs in ATL because everyone was rooting for this guy! Gf and I noted that there would probably be a lot of people quitting their jobs, learning how to shoot and terrorizing the city following the movie.
I should have been taking notes. This movie was a blueprint for how to reach a goal. So what that Wesley’s goal was to be the best assassin he could so that he could get revenge for his father. He focused on his target, and he succeeded. And in the process he took control of his life, and left behind loser-dom.
So what did Wesley do?
He dedicated all his energy of being the best
He focused on tasks that were related to his goal
He studied the work of others and learned from the best
He listened to his mentors
He did the penny-ante work that was thrown at him even when he didn’t understand why he needed to do it and/or when all he really wanted to do was kill his father’s killer
Bottom line, check out the movie!
