Wanted

I haven't seen either of Bekmambetov's "Watch" action/fantasy/whatever films, but I guess they were somehow interesting enough to find success outside of Russia and get him a job in Hollywood. I can't really say I'm that impressed by his storytelling skills, but he sure knows how to make an over-the-top action scene. Wanted is (apparently very loosely) based on a comic published by Top Cow and written by Mark Millar, whose work I also haven't experienced but has done well enough for me to have heard of him. It (the movie) is about a loser whose life changes when he finds out he's inherited his father's abilities as an elite assassin and is brought into a secret guild that carries out hits around the globe. It's quite a while before he really gets into that though, as a lot of time is spent showing how much of a loser he is. A lot of the focus is at the office where he works, with some really unfunny scenes about how much he hates his fat boss and dirtbag friend. The narration by James McAvoy is really bad, especially in these early scenes, where you can see him and the writing straining very hard to be clever but failing at every turn. I was glad when he left that and got into killing people.

McAvoy and Angelina Jolie are featured in most of the action, and they have a pretty decent chemistry on camera. She's sexy as she always is, and he seems a little out of place starring in a movie like this but doesn't do a bad job overall. Morgan Freeman is the leader of the assassins, and does the typical wise old man thing he always does, and towards the end his character gets more interesting and funnier. Common makes another acting appearance, although the actual acting he does is minimal and I think he's just there because his face looks cool. There are many other mildly interesting characters, and the middle of the movie is a bunch of McAvoy getting his ass kicked and partaking in some entertaining missions before the big one, avenging his father's killer. It's around this point that they start throwing out plot twists like they're party favors, and it's not long before the final big violent sequence with lots of running, shooting, absurd curving of bullets, and exploding rats. The very end makes one final attempt at too-cool-for-school humor, and then there's the credits to a very mediocre movie. While it usually pretty dumb, the filming and visual effects in the action scenes make it easily watchable for fans of the genre. If you think you'd like it from the previews, you're probably right.

The Darkness

The Darkness is based on a comic by Top Cow Productions, although it seems significantly different in visual style. Starbreeze Studios reworked the concept to work better in a first person shooter, and spent more time with the mafia aspect and World War I setting than the more supernatural stuff. The Darkness comes off of Starbreeze's previous hit, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a prequel to the Vin Diesel movies.

The Darkness is a fun game, although the shooting action itself isn't all that good. Apparently that's a quirk of Starbreeze, they make good first person shooters without good shooting. From what I've gathered, Butcher Bay succeeded because of atmosphere, graphics, and hand-to-hand combat, while The Darkness succeeds because of atmosphere, graphics, and the darkness powers. They just make you feel like a badass and add immensely to the experience. Which scenario sounds cooler?

1) A door opens, and a man walks through and shoots the other men inside the room.
2) A door opens and a sharp black spike darts in, smashing out all the lights in the room, covering it in shadow. An ominous figure walks in with the appearance of a man, but he has several demonic appendages protruding from him, including two ravenous-looking snake-like creatures. The man dispatches the others in the room with his guns and lashing, impaling tentacles. When it is over, the two creatures greedily consume the hearts of the fallen.

Other cool touches include Jackie, the protagonist, merely dropping his pistols and pulling out new ones when they're out of ammo, and the brutal "execution" moves he performs when right next to the enemy. The game's not all just violence though. If you want, you can spend time helping out the normal citizens you see around you, and there are plenty of calmer, even tender moments, like going to see Jackie's girlfriend at her new apartment and watching To Kill A Mockingbird together (The PS3 version includes this and other movies, plus some cartoons and music videos, in their entirety on various televisions in the game world). They really try to immerse you in this world, which can help gloss over some of the other flaws and adds to the success of the story.

The plot has two main threads, as Jackie deals with his traitorous uncle Paulie and the Darkness inside him that is trying to control him. The two are mixed well, and it moves along with generally good voice acting and presentation. The conclusion is a bit... inconclusive, though not totally unsatisfying. The sound design is pretty good, with nice music and effective sound effects. Some of the textures look bad up close and the people can look a bit weird, but generally the graphics, lighting and overall visual quality are quite good. The game can be a bit glitchy, and the core gameplay isn't quite as solid as you might like, but thanks to the peripheral touches it's a good experience. It's also a very funny game, the main story is very serious (and well, dark), but there are lots of humorous phone messages, posters, and NPC conversations sprinkled throughout. The story might be a bit short, but you should at least try the game if you're interested.