While Wanted features no costumes, the characters in the film are definitely super-powered, using their fantastic abilities to take down evil-doers. Some may say they're just talented, but I say no way. When a sniper, using very ornate bullets, kills a man from three miles away, the guy is talented. When a man runs down a long hallway fast enough to make papers shoot out of inboxes and jumps across a city street to the next building, the dude is superhero. When a gunman can make a bullet curve just by shooting his gun the way he thinks is the right way, the man is a fricking Jedi.

Ironically, in the comic book the film is based on, the characters are all supervillains, killing and raping for fun and profit after wiping out all of the superheroes ten years prior. (While we can see how that would be a difficult movie to make and market, there's probably a much darker, lower-budget film in there somewhere.) This version of Wanted gives the fraternity of assassins nobler aspirations: they only kill those that Fate tells them deserve to die, usually for being mass-murdering a-holes. The names are delivered via binary code, hidden in the flaws in fabric made at the Fraternity's headquarters/giant loom. It's not made clear, but the Fraternity may also run a successful fabric business. And who knew that the Fate knows binary? Does he know HTML, too?

But while their orders come via magic muslin, their powers are never really attributed to any one source. The only science that's given is that Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a twenty-something office drone, has an unusually high heart rate, which is mistaken for a nervous condition but is actually a gift inherited from his long-absent father, one of the greatest killers on the planet. In stressful situations, that heart rate allows him to do incredible things, like shoot the wings off of flies -- as long as he isn't suppressing it with medication. And he takes a lot of medication, to protect him from his cursing, overbearing boss (who has an eating disorder), his cursing, overbearing girlfriend (who's hooking up with his best bud) and his cursing, empty bank account.

So when Fox (Angelina Jolie) saves him from the assassin who killed his father and tells him who he really is, he is sent down a path to freedom -- freedom from want (he inherits his dad's millions), freedom from fear (after getting beat up a few times, he isn't scared of it anymore) and, uh, freedom of religion (when Jolie gets out of a bathtub naked, he sees God?). He's taught to shoot, fight and ride on top of Chicago's elevated trains, then given a "bucket list" -- of people who need to kick the bucket -- by Sloan (Morgan Freeman), the head of the Fraternity in that area. There must be a lot of mass-murderers in the Great Lakes region. Or do they just handle the Chicago metropolitan area? Because, no offense, Chicago, but are there really that many people in Chi-town whose decisions are affecting a large number of lives?

Reviewers have praised the film as a non-stop thrill rider, and there certainly are some amazing action sequences that seem to take up most of the film. (And most of the trailers -- don't be surprised if everything seems familiar.) But after the opening action sequence, we have to deal with a whiny Wesley for far too long, and he starts to get on one's nerves. In several ways, it's very similar to The Matrix: Wesley is "the one" who can stop the traitor Cross, and along the way he gets some gritty training scenes that tap into his hero's potential, performs a few ballets of killing, and listens to some pseudo-mysticism from an elderly African-American. But, for better or worse, McAvoy is much more annoyingly believable as an office drone than Keanu Reeves is, and his transformation may be even more dramatic because of it. Also, The Matrix doesn't have Morgan Freeman saying the word "motherfucker," which he should say more often.

But a whiny Wesley is worth sitting through for Timur Bekmambetov's imagery, which is all pretty amazing. Anyone who's seen Night Watch and Day Watch won't be disappointed here -- the star of Night Watch, Konstantin Khabensky, even has a small role. And if you haven't seen them, you'll probably want to after you see Wanted.

Fans of the comic book will definitely want to see this film, but they shouldn't let themselves get disappointed by the lack of capes or by the fact that the entire first half of the film feels very familiar. It hews pretty close to the book, with a lot of fun little touches thrown in. Wesley's quitting scene is particularly great, and I was surprised to go back to the book and see how boringly it was handled there. Keep an eye out for the name "J.G. Millar" to pop up, a tribute to the books' two creators, J.G. Jones and Mark Millar. Otherwise sit back and enjoy the action, including plenty of exit wounds that look like something Jones would have drawn, and a final gunfight that manages to out-gruesome the artist himself.

I realize I haven't said much about Angelina Jolie. What is there to say? She's still beautiful, she gets to show off her tattoos this time, and she looks really pissed off when she shoots people, all of which makes her a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Also, she's the fourth drop-dead gorgeous Hollywood actress that James McAvoy has gotten to make out with in the past few years, following Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway and Kerry Washington.

I think McAvoy just made a few hit lists himself.

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