NEWS: Wanted Trailer, Dead or Alive?

CELEB: Wanted Trailer, Dead or Alive?

I've been a comic book fan for my entire life. That carries a lot less stigma nowadays, than it did growing up. But that doesn't mean my non-comic fan friends are willing or interested in discussing comics. Except on one occasion.

The only time I can recall this happening was a few years back when Mark Millar's Wanted mini series came out. Several of my non-reader pals were not only willing to talk about it, but anxiously awaiting each new issue.

I'm not sure why the comic was able to crossover like it was. I mean, it was a great book, but so were plenty of other titles. The comic told the story of a stepped-on nobody who very quickly discovers the means to change his life. That's about as vague as I can make it.

The first thing that stood out about the comic was its over the top violence. The second was its awesomeness (its unique premise and its use of classic comic book archetypes. I won't say anymore.) The third was probably the fact that most of the main characters conveniently resembled actors. The Wesley character was clearly based on Eminem. Surprisingly, this didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Nothing against ol' Marshall Mathers, his music's fine, I just don't need to read about his exploits in a comic... or, anywhere.

Even worse was the female lead who resembled Halle Berry. Holy shit, was she really going to ruin another comic character? Two wasn't enough? She's done more damage to the Marvel Universe than Thanos the Titan. (For non-comic fans, Thanos is basically a likable Charles Manson, without the swastika, and made out of stone. Don't worry, he's dead... Thanos is, Chuck is still around, I think.) Also, Wesley's dad looked an awful lot like Tommy Lee Jones.

Here's the trailer for the Wanted movie.



I'm disappointed that the "super-heroes" aspect has been replaced by "assassins" because, well, most movies have assassins in them. But, Angelina Jolie replacing Berry is a step up and the trailer has a Morgan Freeman voiceover, which is nice. (I realize the movie probably won't have one.)

As demonstrated by about one third of the movies being made today, a Morgan Freeman voiceover makes everything better. You put a shit sandwich down in front of me I wouldn't have the slightest interest in it. However, if Morgan's deep, soothing voice suddenly exploded out of the stillness of my apartment to say "That shit sandwich in front of me meant only one thing... that all the rest of the sandwichs had..." Fuck, I bet you by the time he was done yapping I'd have eaten the sandwich.

By the way, if someone asks you if you wanna be the sheep or the wolf, you should first weigh the chances of that person being able to slap you in the face, if those chances are low, you should then answer with an animal bigger than a wolf. Like say "Me? Oh, I'm a grizzly bear." Or "I'm a komodo dragon." Make sure to limit your choices to aggresive, larger-than-wolf animals, though. Saying you're a dolphin doesn't really buy you much.

This looks good, but it'd look more gooder if everyone was wearing capes. And Tommy Lee Jones better have a cameo.


TheCoolerKing buys his comics at the legendary Golden Apple on Melrose... where he's been secretly plotting to steal their "Radd" Silver Surfer statue.

That looks really good.

holy shit, this looks like it might be good!

Angelina wearing heavy eyeliner and contorting into awkward positions while holding a gun makes me moist. This movie already wins

This does look good, I'm kinda annoyed that they removed it from the whole supervillain theme though as there was a lot of plot based on that. But still, I don't think it'll be bad, just not the same as the comics.

i hate to sound like a elitist comic geek but i think there gonna fuck it up. the comics were great but i think they changed too much form the books. i wish they would have let millar write the script. i hope it will be good but i don't think it will.

Of course they're going to fuck it up. or change it a lot.
im still in

Of course they are, it'd be difficult enough to make it more than decent if the proper super-hero thing was kept , in changing what they have they've pretty much garenteed it just being altogether wrong.
That being said, im still excited to see it. Wrong or not it'll probably be better than most of the crap they're putting on film these days, although im sure it'll be better for those who previously have never heard of Wanted.

I'm desperately trying to completely separate the concept of the movie from the book. The book was an amazing concept, though it was a total fuck you to its own readers. I understand the need to change it. Hell, theres no way a major studio would ever try and release a big budget film where the "hero" does half the shit the protagonist in Wanted does. and good luck not getting an NC-17.

I really just hope some of the stuff from the book makes it in.

Ha! A "Radd" Silver Surfer statue. Very well done sir. Spot on and all that.

Well, it looks like they're still keeping a certain amount of superpowers in it. Even really good assassins can't normally bend bullets around solid obstacles in mid-air.

... God damn it! Was there nothing grandpa told me that wasn't a lie?!


Looks pretty neat, and Angelina in cold, sexy, shoot-faces mode is always a plus. That said, I'm getting a bit tired of the assassin as hyper kinetic acrobat. I'd like to see them bust up the mold and give a few that are so bad ass they hardly move at all. Economy of movement is sexy.

I could go either way on this ... the trailer doesn't make me want to see this, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's gonna suck.

I'll wait and see.

Couldn't they have made this movie, which seems vastly different than the comic, without using the comics name? Seriously, why bother bringing a comic to the big screen, if you're only using the title and some character names?

The movie looks good, but I'd still rather watch a movie actually based on 'Wanted'.

If 'Watchmen' ends up turning out well, I think it'll be time to limit all comic book movies to being made by Zack Snyder, Robert Rodriguez, and Christopher Nolan.

Anyone who makes a play at the Norrin at GA better be ready to have me go all "Drax" on them.
Which means really little for a variety of reasons...

. . . .to Matrix

too Matrix

I think Hollywood already did the nobody-turned-superhero flick. Even though it sucked big baboon balls, it probably means noone can do it again for a good long while.

As for assassin movies... I'll wait for Hitman.

just my opinion and all, but...

wanted was not a 'great' book. a good idea, granted, but the execution wasn't all that, and if it weren't for the J.G. Jones art? I don't think many people'd've got past issue 1, myself included.

Hahaha... There's no such thing as a bad "Drax" reference.

I don't know, for me, it really worked. The "fuck you" aspect of the last issue was brilliant, I thought. As well as the way the first issue opened, the wrecking of all the iconic characters, the violence... I really liked it.

Where did it lose you?

It really seems like a standard over the top Hollywood action movie without any of the gleeful sociopathy or commentary about media as power fantasy stuff that made Wanted interesting. Until I hear something abut the meat of the adaptation (ya know, the story) I'll be giving this one a pass.

Story!? This is Hollywood we're talking about.

Too true!

I gotta agree with ikaruga on this one. Wanted was really entertaining, and some of JG Jones' best art I've seen, but as a solid, new comic story, I was a little underwhelmed. Granted, it comes from a personal dislike of Mark Millar, but if deconstruction of super-hero stereotypes assassination is your thing, than you can certainly do better with Wanted. Basically, pick up Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, Hitman, or any random title of Garth Ennis', whose pure hate of comic book capes 'n' tights makes for some of the best dark comedy ever put to paper.