I’ll not lie. I went to see Angelina Jolie, action woman par excellence at the moment 🙂 She looked perfect for the role, but Then said she was too thin, like a drug addict. I agree with that. Her tattoos would have looked better if she was a bit more fleshier. Anyway, the movie was taken sometime back, and Ms Jolie is expected to deliver twins any time this week.Ok, let’s get back on track here 🙂
The movie is quite straightforward. We are introduced to a guy who runs through a glass window of a skyscraper to jump across to another building. Plenty of shooting and bullets that travel through distances and create holes in various parts of the head. This scene leaves about 5 dead bodies. Gory stuff, definitely not for the kids (Its 18 SG anyway). Seems like a group of assassins are having some internal issues and fighting among themselves.
A practical nobody, Wesley, works as an Accounts Manager. He is under stress due to his supervisor, his girlfriends, his buddy who is having an affair with his girlfriend, and generally with life. I liked the part where he googled his name and it returned zero matches! To cut the story short, this nobody suddenly finds himself being stared at by a pretty lady, Fox (Jolie). She brings a bad news – Wesley’s long disappeared was killed the day before. Before he can digest that, the shooting starts. We are introduced to bullets that bend, guns with LCD screens, and whatnots. And this is followed by THE car chase that is shown on trailers. Our action woman shoots while half the body is out of the windscreen. Wesley can’t really handle this, at the end of the car chase, he faints.
Cue to the next scene: Wesley wakes up and is confronted by Fox and her team. He is then introduced to Sloan (Morgan Freeman), head of the Fraternity of Assassins, who explains that Wesley’s father was a member, and naturall (!) the Fraternity is looking to recruit him as well. Sloan explains that the killer was their own member who turned renegade, and is killing the others one by one. Latest to perish was Wesley’s dad. All his father’s assets are transferred to Wesley. Wesley was then forced to use a gun to shoot flies (the wings of the flies actually). He did so while under the stress attack. Sloan the explains that its not stress attack, but rush of adrenaline while his heart beats 400 times per minute. Very few people have this capability, which allows them to do things faster and better. Wesley refuses to believe all this and leaves.
The next day, he checks his bank account and sees a couple of millions there. He goes to work, shouts at his supervisor, whacks his buddy and comes out happily like a free man. That’s when he see the newspaper with his image – due to the shooting at the shop the night before. Fox arrives then, and he gets into the vehicle with her. Off the went to the Textile Company.
The Assassins were actually weavers who interpret the code found on the weaved cloth. It will provide a name that the assassins are supposed to kill in order to maintain peace in the world. Kind of God’s killing order via a weaving machine. Wesley is then put through a series of training (more blood) before he is declared ready for duty.
His first duty was to kill a guy, which he didn’t execute. He felt it was wrong to kill a person without knowing the reason. Fox the explains why she does it. In short, she asks him to have faith in the machine. And so, Wesley begins his new duty.
After more Matrix-like animation, bending bullets, and the obligatory Angelina exposure, we reach the climax. Wesley gets his next order – to kill the guy who turned renegade – Cross. The story continues in Monrovia, where Wesley and Cross end up in a train, shooting at each other. Fox chases after then on a car and at one part, drives the car smack into the side of the train. This causes severe damage to the train, and it slowly falls off a bridge connecting two tunneled mountains. Each of them try to escape from the falling train. At this point, Cross helps Wesley by pulling him up, but Wesley, bent on revenging his father’s death, shoots Cross. On his death throes, Cross reveals a shocking truth – he is Welsey’s father and the Fraternity had lied to Wesley. Wesley is shocked and asks Fox. She verifies it and says the her duty is now to kill Wesley. Wesley escapes, falling into the ravine below and subsequently into the cold, fast flowing river.
Wesley wakes up, and finds himself with his father’s friend. The guy explains about the Fraternity. It seems Sloan, the leader has been misusing the machine to order killings as he likes. Wesley’s father found out about it, so Sloan had to get rid of him. The only way is to use the son, as Cross would never harm his own son.
Wesley becomes angry and decides to attack the Fraternity. He hatches a plan involving rats and mini-bombs.
The climax sees Wesley driving a garbage truck full of rats into the Textile Factory and releasing them. As the explode, he guns his way into the building. More body counts. Finally he comes face to face with Sloan, Fox and few more remaining Assassins. He reveals to them that Sloan is the bad guy and has been misusing the machine all this while. Actually, Sloan’s had come up through the machine, but Sloan hid it. Wesley says Sloan must be killed. Sloan counters by showing names of all the remaining Assassins. He says that the machine had spewed the their names as well, meaning every one of them must die. So, follow what the machine say or kill Wesley and let the Fraternity become more powerful – This is Sloan’s question. He lets the other Assassins decide. As one of them decides that killing Wesley is better than killing himself, Fox shoots a bending bullet that goes around in a circle, killing everyone and finally killing herself. She believed in the machine, and dies for it. Wesley goes after Sloan, but he escapes.
The scene cuts to Wesley’s old office. We find a guy hunched at the Wesley’s workstation, busily doing work. Looks like Wesley. Sloan approaches him with a gun, but the guy turns out to be a decoy. Wesley shoots Sloan from a very far distance. The End.
The movie is action packed, but too fast at times, until we can’t comprehend what’s happening. Actions are OK, but repeated scenes of bullets entering and exiting people’s heads becomes boring after a while. Reminds us of computer games. James McAvoy (you would have seen him in Narnia as Mr Tumnus) acted well, transforming from a nobody on the verge of self wreck to some one who discovers a purpose in life. Oh ya, did mention he got to lip lock with Angelina 🙂
Angelina did the usual stuff, nothing difficult for her I guess. Morgan Freeman with the usual overbearing, mature, fatherly character. Well, everyone was in the usual characters.
So, what’s different? The animation and action scenes is something that may interest you. Err… did I mention Angelina Jolie?
Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman
Genre: Action
Acting : 6/10
Story : 5/10
Special Effects: 6/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Overall Oomphness: 6/10