Wanted review

We were in NYC this weekend, and by the time we finished dinner all the Dark Knight showings were sold out until 10:30 or 11:00. Since that's way past our bedtime, our options were the new X-Files movie (which has gotten soundly trashed by the critics) and Wanted (which apparently has a 70% favorable rating on RottenTomatoes).

I didn't want to be disappointed by the X-Files movie, so we saw Wanted instead.

Big mistake.

I really hated Wanted. It wanted soooo badly to be clever with its direction and cinematography, or cool like The Matrix. In fact it's such an obvious Matrix ripoff (unbelieving neo-phyte, too-cool black group leader, super-hot female ass-kicker/love interest, many guns) I'm shocked it wasn't immediately dismissed by reviewers because of it. Unlike The Matrix, though, it had stupid juvenile dialog and an absolutely moronic plot. "The Loom of Fate"? Excuse me? The friggin' LOOM of friggin' FATE?!?! Oooh, and the secret code? It's BINARY! Ooooh! Binary code! How high-tech and cool and stuff!

Only redeeming points to this movie? 1) Set in Chicago. 2) It was rated R so you actually got to see and hear adult things, instead of obligatory PG-13-level sex and violence. 3) Angelina Jolie was of course hot, although she could use a good turkey sandwich with a side of cranberry sauce.