Anyone looking for an action-filled G-force thriller need look no further than Universal’s Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. In this fast-paced film, based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has done for gravity-defying shoot-outs what Indiana Jones did for adventure.

Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) is among the millions of workers who hate their jobs. He’s a numbers guy in an accounting firm and gets screamed at daily by his donut-eating boss (Lorna Scott). He’s also learned his girlfriend is sleeping with his fellow employee. One could say Wes is a loser.

While in a pharmacy after work to buy some nerve-calming pills, Wes is fired upon by a gunman (Thomas Kretschmann). But Wes gets his own fairy godmother in the form of a nerves-of-steel beauty (Jolie). After she gives the gunman a nasty taste of his own medicine, she whisks Wes out of the store and takes him on a whirlwind, train-top jumping chase that soon changes his life.

Fox (Jolie) drags Wes back to a fortress, on old textile factory in a deserted area of Chicago where he learns from leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman), about an ancient group called the Fraternity. Their motto? “Kill one, save a thousand” -- and they train assassins to carry out the unbreakable orders of fate. Sloan explains that Wes’s father had been  part of the Fraternity until he was recently killed by the man who tried to murder him. It’s Wes’ responsibility, Sloan explains, to avenge his father’s death. 

How do you turn a non-combatant who can’t even stand up for himself into a hardened killer? The Fraternity begins by brutalizing Wes in one form after another. When the Gunsmith (Common) and the knife-fighting Butcher (Dato Bakhtadze) get a hold of him, it’s a sure bet Wes won’t survive much less become the killing-machine the Fraternity desires.

Fox, Wes’ mentor for most of the teachings, presents a truly interesting character. She’s like a beam of unmoving steel in the center of a torpedo, and when the room is left in a heap, Fox appears unscathed. Jolie (Beowulf) is perfect in the role. The action and CGI effects alone would make this movie worth seeing, but it’s Jolie’s stunning and focused work here that dazzled me. 

“I like the fact that she’s (Fox) quite flat, in a way; she just believes in getting on with it and doesn’t really show any emotion,” said Jolie. “Fox has binary codes on her arm, which is part of a reading of the fabric from the Loom of Fate. She has ‘know your rights’ in different languages and ‘toil and tears,’ which is from a Churchill speech. It’s things like that that the audience won’t notice or pick up, but giving Fox all these tattoos is symbolic of somebody who lives by a certain code of honor.”

James McAvoy (Atonement) is not accustomed to a role with a lot of stunt work, but he liked the unique story and did most of his own stunts. “I’m glad they cast someone like me, not in terms of what I can bring to the role as an actor, but more because I’m not an obvious choice,” said McAvoy. “I like action movies that don’t take themselves too seriously—I like them when they have fun.”

Morgan Freeman needs only to show up to make his icy Sloan character feel like a wolf when he’s really a sheep after Wes’ own good.

The unpredictable storyline takes viewers through a mix of emotions and reactions. Screenwriter Chris Morgan, along with 3:10 to Yuma screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Hass, penned a great adaptation. It’s slightly dark, yet intriguing, funny, surprising, and most of all enjoyable. Bekmambetov deserves credit for making a far-fetched film appear believable and vigorous.  

While being compared to the Matrix and the Clive-Owen starrer Shoot 'Em Up, Wanted has more sincere characters than the complex Matrix and a plot far more conclusive than Shoot 'Em Up. Fans of those movies or any of Jolie’s no-holes-barred -she’s-in-charge films will not want to miss this one.     

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated “R” for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality.)

Review also posted at www.reviewexpress.com .