Wanted (Blu-ray)

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Audio:

My favorite part of the "Wanted" soundtrack is the Danny Elfman song "The Little Things" and I wondered if this is how Oingo Boingo would sound today. Regardless of my fascination with the film´s theme, the English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 mix sounds quite good and highlights the over-the-top action sequences contained in the film. French and Spanish DTS 5.1 mixes are also provided with subtitles in English SDH, Espanol and Francais. "Wanted" is an aggressive and enveloping mix that really comes alive during the car sequences and shoot outs. The first shoot out with Jolie and the following Viper chase sound very good and showcase that all six channels are used heavily with strong .1 LFE response and clean imaging across all channels. The score by Elfman and other rock songs contained in the film sound very good and bleed nicely into the rear channels. This is an active and impressive sounding motion picture.

Extras:

The Blu-ray release of "Wanted" is delivered with two discs. The first disc contains the film and all of the bonus material, while the second disc is a DVD that includes a Digital Copy of the film that is playable on either PC or Macintosh based systems. The DVD release contains its "Digital Copy" for a limited time, while it appears to be a permanent addition to the high definition release. Comparing the two releases, some of the features contained on the DVD are missing from the Blu-ray release and one short item has been added. Some modern technology has been applied to this next gen release and some of the features have been juggled accordingly and a few new items have been added to make this the better release of the two.

The disc contains features that require either Profile 1.1 or Profile 2.0 capable Blu-ray players. The U-Control functionality on the Blu-ray disc includes four items. The Motion Comics shows eight scenes from the original graphic novel with animated frames and dialogue and music. It is intriguing for fans of the film to enjoy. These are spread over six of the disc´s chapters. Scene Explorer occurs in chapters 3, 7, 15 and 17. This utilizes the multi-angle capability of Blu-ray to allow the viewer to enjoy the selected four action scenes from up to three different angles and is quite fun to play with. Assassin Profiles is contained in fourteen of the twenty chapters and provides additional information on characters in the film. Finally, a Picture-in-Picture video commentary provides behind-the-scenes information and interviews in fifteen of the films chapters. Some of this information is quite good and presented nicely for those with Profile 1.1 capable machines.

The Blu-ray release also includes functionality for BD-Live. The first time you select the feature it requires a short load time and then reboots the disc after it downloads the BD-Live information. Oddly, my disc did this twice. The BD-Live functionality contained for "Wanted" involves My Chat and allows the viewer to chat with friends if an Internet connection is provided for the Blu-ray player. A USB keyboard is a nice item to have if you intend to use "My Chat" and makes text entry a whole lot nicer. If you want to use this functionality, I would like to stress my belief that the Playstation 3 is currently the best overall player on the market for playback of special features.

The ´Extras´ begin with the uninteresting My Scenes bookmarking and get better very quickly. The hours of bonus materials are nearly all showcased in high definition with the exception of the Extended Scene (1:59) that shows more footage of Wesley debating with his mentors of shooting a dead woman for target practice. They discuss shooting puppies. The Alternate Opening (2:38) is a Blu-ray exclusive that shows piles of dead bodies and hints at the magical loom of doom. This opening would have ruined the big surprise. Cast and Characters (19:59) is your typical EPK styled documentary and finds most members of the cast discussing their characters and their involvement with this film. There were some nice behind-the-scenes moments interwoven into the production. Stunts on the L Train (2:31) looks at how the bridge jump from the L train was achieved. It is brief, but is a nice breakdown of the scene.

The next three features deal with the effects of the film and adapting the original graphic novel to the big screen. Special Effects: The Art of the Impossible (8:28) is the last item on the first menu page and is your typical making-of featurette and shows some nice sequences being shot, but doesn´t provide a lot of depth. Groundbreaking Visual Effects: From Imagination to Execution (8:06) looks more of how digital effects were handled in post production to create the film´s stunning action sequences and is a nice addition to the previous featurette. Event the rats were CGI´d in this film. The Origins of Wanted: Bringing the Graphic Novel to Live (8:05) finds the "Wanted" graphic novelist Mark Millar interviewed about the film and looks at how the story was translated to the film. I found it intriguing that Millar grew up believing Superman existed because he saw an old black and white photograph of George Reeves in costume.

Three items are included on the second menu page if items and a few bits are absent from the Blu-ray release. Through the Eyes of Visionary Director Timur Bekmambetov (9:04) found the cast and crew patting the film´s director on the back and was your typical EPK making of feature where the director is given in incredible amount of credit. The guy seems like a good director, but I won´t base my opinions on this featurette. Wanted: Motion Comics (13:55) shows eight scenes from the original graphic novel with animated frames and dialogue and music. It is intriguing for fans of the film to enjoy. Finally, The Making of Wanted: The Game (10:01) is a long form advertisement for the pending video game adaptation of the film. My complaint with this release is the Danny Elfman video for "The Little Things" is not included on the Blu-ray release.

Closing:

"Wanted" is one of those films where I struggle to call it a good film, but I have no problem telling you flat out that it is an entertaining picture. The premise of the film is culled from a graphic novel which was written by an author that once believed in superheroes. That should be enough to tell you that the action is very much over the top. The direction of Russian auteur Timur Bekmambetov is very good for an action film and Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman are comfortable in their roles and the relatively unknown James McAvoy performs adequately in the film. I still prefer "Shoot ´Em Up," but "Wanted" was enough to keep me interested in the often silly story and I was curious to see how everything would pan out. Aside from a couple teeth groaning moments, I enjoyed myself. I want my Danny Elfman video, but otherwise I felt the Blu-ray release was better than the DVD release. It has a good looking picture and solid sound along with U-Control and BD-Live support.

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