Creators Mark Millar and J.G. Jones brought nihilism to a new level with their 2003 comic Wanted , a tale of everyman Wesley Gibson and the underground fraternity of supervillains who rule the world. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch) in his first American project uses these concepts in the big screen rendition of Wanted.

Apathetic loser Wesley Gibson (the understated James McAvoy) hates his cubicle-residing, evil-harpy-of-a-boss-telling-him-what-to-do accounting job, his cheating-with-his-best-friend girlfriend, and his I'm-too-broke-and-scared-to-change life. Along comes the vivacious Fox (Angelina Jolie) who opens his eyes to a hidden world, populated by a secret society of assassins.

The Fraternity, fronted by Sloan (Morgan Freeman), is charged with maintaining the world order between good and evil. Gibson's long lost father (he supposedly died a week after Wesley was born) belonged to the organization, until a rogue agent killed him. The Fraternity first trains and then sends Gibson, born with his father's killing abilities, out to avenge his father.

Reminiscent of Fight Club, the first third of Wanted speaks to the human condition in contemporary society. Anxious, pill-popping Gibson goes through the motions alone in a world that is eating him alive. At its best here, the film relates issues and insecurities well known to most people in Western societies.

The second act opens with some over the top, highly improbable violence in a neighborhood convenience store culminating in a high-adrenaline car chase. In the midst of this chaos, the just-introduced Fox attempts to protect Gibson from the rogue agent, amid a spray of bullets.

From that moment on, the film becomes one mindless action scene after another, interrupted by dreadfully scripted, poorly acted, and often nonsensical exposition. None of the action felt particularly original and upon entering the final third, outright stupid. The last action sequence hinges upon the absurd, even for a movie based upon a comic book.

Angelina Jolie's tough girl image long ago grew wearisome and in Wanted, veers into parody. The always steady Morgan Freeman sleepwalks through his role, though he delivers some of the best lines in the movie. While completely believable in the first act, James McAvoy fails in the transition from nebbish nobody to fearsome killer.

By removing the costumed supervillain and nihilistic angles from the source material, Bekmambetov basically created a ho-hum, by-the-numbers tale of mindless violence and mind-numbing action. Essentially an inferior version of the exciting, improbable 2007 action thriller Shoot 'Em Up, Wanted offers little for fans of the graphic novel or action films.