Curve ball, with a bullet.

An outlandish premise about a random guy with a superpower, the black elder-statesman actor who torments him and promises of action-filled popcorn fun: It sounds suspiciously like another movie I hated on a bit recently.

Wanted, however, is no jumper. It fires on all cylinders.

It's a rollicking non-stop action ride that takes no prisoners and knows well enough not to take itself too seriously.

It is a bold twist on the Angelina Jolie as a dominatrix toughie. She's a key part of the whole story, but in the end, the movie belongs to James McAvoy, and he owns it. Jolie is simply along for the ride, and loving every scenery chewing minute.

McAvoy, whom I vaguely remembered from the first Narnia flick where he played a faun, steps up his game in this star-making role as a nebbish, cubicle-zombie turned bullet-flinging assassin. The fact that you buy into the ridiculous transformation, through some seriously over-the-top missions rests solely successfully on his shoulders.

A shout out to Chicago is in order too, as the city is just as important a character. I always love when movies really figure out how to use a city to help tell a story. Director Timur Bekmambetov's slick use of El Trains, downtown streets and the skyline itself is inventive and exciting. It grounds the outlandish in a pseudo-reality that works.

So too, is his deft balance between violence and gore. I am no fan of torture porn as it has exploded onto the mainstream movie scene. I am easily repulsed and taken out of the moment by Hollywood's recent morbid game of oneupmanship.

Wanted has it's moments to make you squirm, but Bekmambetov clearly knows when to push hard, and more-importantly when to pull back. This is clearly an adult thriller, with plenty of ketchup to go around. But never did it seem completely gratuitous.

Implausible? Sometimes, yeah.

Predictable? On occasion.

Who cares? This isn't rocket science. It's just a summer popcorn action flick done very right.

I can't wait to see McAvoy get all Matrix on people again.

Between Wanted, WALL-E and Iron Man, hopefully Hollywood is listening. This summer, there is so much more to the box office than just warmed-over sequelitis.

Man of Steel

You know that jetpack novelty get-up that you see from time to time, where a stuntman will fly awkwardly over some store-opening or state-fair for half a minute or so?

That's reality.

Then there's Iron Man.


Deep in a cave beneath the Afghan mountains, you are asked to believe that a genius playboy inventor, faced with a life or death ultimatum, is able to build a supersonic jetpack to escape in. Did I mention the whole bit about the super-duper reactor battery he has to build to power the suit AND keep his heart beating?

That's Hollywood.

The brilliant part though, is that as absurd as a comic book premise like that can be, the movie sells it. Robert Downey Jr. becomes this technologic Iron Man, and for a few hours in a darkened theater, you just roll with it, smiling all the way. Downey Jr. is that good. All his rehab-tinged tabloid dalliances are seemingly channeled directly into a character that might as well have been written for him.

Unlike other cheesier comic book adaptations, say like the Fantastic Four flicks, this movie decidedly chooses a more adult route.

By not trying to pander to the lowest common denominator, director Jon Favreau gave his talented cast of Oscar nominees and winners a broad canvas to play on, and it worked. It really worked. Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard all rise up to challenge of playing foils to Downey Jr.'s playboy superhero.

It is almost a testament to the sheer joy it was to sit through the film, that the final climactic battle (almost a cliche in itself in this era of bigger better spectacular effects) almost seems understated and simple. If you want more robotic bangs per city block, it is as if the movie acknowledges Transformers did that last year, and daringly the movie decides to be OK with that.

Just before the credits start rolling, the movie gladly throws a wrench into everything you know superheroes are supposed to do. Just the way Robert Downey Jr. manages to pull it off with style, it makes me look forward to the inevitable sequels already.

What a great start to the summer popcorn season. With the Wachowski Brothers and Spielberg still to come just this month, here's hoping for a good old summer blockbuster season!