Not Wanted

They kicked in. Whoo-doggy, did they ever kick in.

My dander is up this morning, friends. Not over anything important, about a simple little movie known as "Wanted". In it you watch a typical modern drone turn into one of the greatest assassins the world has ever seen. It's like the "Matrix" gone evil with 10 years of technological improvement. The critics love it.

Nobody has any problem mentioning that the whole ruckus came from a comic book. However, what really skins my goat is how the entire reason for the comic in the first place doesn't exist in the movie. This reason is superheroes. Yes, superheroes, or the lack there of.

Imagine a world where up until 1986 the world we saw in the pages of the funny papers was really the world. The super-villans finally united and together caused a massive battle, eventually causing the extinction of the superhero. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, shifted reality to this one, where "The Detective" was only an old actor who played that part in a campy 60's TV show and the evil "Professor's" archenemy also was an actor playing a part paralyzed by a horse riding accident. The only one who knows that the world was changed by this pact of evil are the supervillans themselves, who have become a giant secret illuminati-esque organization. Wanted is the story of Wesley Gibson's introduction and ascent into the ranks of the "Brotherhood" to replace his father, known as "The Killer."

Yes, it's grim and gritty, and in the rock and roll world that is comic books, this is a profanity-laced gangsta rap. However, it's also a love ballad to the DC Universe, recognizing the men and woman who are daily ground under the heel of those striving for Truth, Justice and the American Way. To leave the Comic Book theme out of the movie is the same as doing an adaptation of "Hamlet" where the whole revenge theme is left out, all you'd have is a movie of a whiny kid would doesn't like his step dad and has girl troubles. This is the same as a film about a whiny kid who becomes a part of a secret society of assassins who kill by the whims of the fabric in a textile mill. Blech.

Imagine it, Morgan Freeman as Lex Luthor – who, twenty years ago, actually beat Superman. It makes my mouth water.

Oh well. Just another excuse to cut back on my popcorn intake.

Waffles!