Tonight, I decided that I to watch Wanted with a couple of friends. Let me tell you, I was looking forward to this all day. I absolutely loved the Wanted comics. I devoured them in the course of about 2 hours one Saturday afternoon. Nevertheless, when I saw the previews, I thought “hell yes, this looks badass”. I knew, like I know going into any comic book movie or movie based on a book, that the story was not going follow exactly along with the original source material. But that is usually ok. It is usually at least in the spirit of the original material and that makes it ok usually. Wanted, however, is not that case. Simply put: It fucking sucked. Now let me tell you why.

First, there is no reason for this movie to even be called Wanted because it has absolutely nothing to do with the comic. Other than keeping the same character names (I can’t even say they kept the same characters, because none of them are anything like their comic book equivalents) and some of the same scenes, the movie is nothing like the comic. For starters, the comic book is not about a group of assassins who have some weird super gun powers. The comic is about super-villains who defeat all the superheroes and become extremely powerful. Why change that? Did they think that people wouldn’t go see a movie about super-villains? I mean, people don’t have a problem seeing other comic book movies about superheroes, so where does the difference lie? They also kept all of the somewhat cool scenes and cut all of the awesome parts of the story that really made the book. None of the sex was in the movie. None of the remorselessness killings were in the movie. And I really missed the whole concept of the rival super-villain groups (especially the part when the go to the meeting of the 5 families).

Another reason why it sucked is the fact that the movie just plain was not good. Some of the action was ok, but the plot literally made no sense and was poorly developed. If you are going to completely disregard the original work, at least make the new plot good, if not better. They could have taken a lot of the over-the-top action out of the movie and still made a good movie. I’m not saying it has to be believable, I’m just saying it shouldn’t be completely absurd.

There were a couple of redeeming points. One was when Wesley quits his job and smashes the keyboard against his ex-best friend’s face and the keys fly out in slow-mo and spell out “Fuck You”. That was a nice addition. However, a few good points does not help the film be good in any way. Maybe if I hadn’t read the comics I would have enjoyed this film, but I really doubt it.

Finally, I just want to bitch about the overall idea that they had to change the premise of the comic book to make it a movie. I understand that Mark Millar, the comic book’s creator, approved the movie and actually said that he really enjoyed it, but still, why couldn’t the movie have been a more faithful portrayal. The only reason I can think of is that the studio thought that non-comic book people would not want to see a movie about super-powered super-villains. This is completely bullshit. Look at how popular Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man have all been. I think that the general public would have enjoyed the premise of the comic book. I don’t see how by changing it, the studio is getting any benefit out of it. First, fans of the comic will be less likely to see it when they find out it is not true to the source material. So you lose the biggest audience the movie is going to have right away. When the general public sees the trailer, they will see the outragious action and think that it looks stupid and also not want to see it. So you have not only alienated the fans who would normally shell over the money to see the movie, but the general public as well.

The only group that I could see liking this movie are teen and pre-teen boys who will enjoy the senseless violence and crazy action. If you want to see a good comic book movie, go see Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. It will be a much better use of your time and money.