One part office drone fantasy, five parts unrelenting action spectacle, Wanted has all the ingredients to be a summer smash. Combine that with Angelina Jolie as the femme fatale, a comic book origin for the story and an up and coming, talented foreign director and you’ve got a practically unbeatable recipe for success. Well, Wanted certainly has spunk but like an all you can eat Chinese buffet, you gorge yourself on the offerings only to find yourself hungry a few hours later. Empty calories? Sort of, but there is something about this film that doesn’t sit quite right afterwards. It doesn’t linger in a good way like Iron Man and it certainly doesn’t make you anxious to have another go.

Based on a graphic novel by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, we meet Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) as a harmless, ineffectual, anxiety prone account manager that “only cares about not caring about anything.” Until one day when Wesley meets Fox (Jolie), who tells him that the father he never knew was the world’s best assassin and part of a group called the Fraternity. “Kill one; save a thousand. That’s what we believe” says Fox. The Fraternity’s leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) persuades Wesley to join up and harness his inner killer in order to help the Fraternity find rogue agent Cross (Thomas Kretschmann). But is the Fraternity as advertised, or is there something more going on that Wesley doesn’t know about?

Firstly, the action is tremendous in Wanted. Director Timur Bekmambetov (Nightwatch, Daywatch) infuses those scenes with a post-Matrix, post-Bourne mindset where the movement is quick and the action itself defies what’s physically possible. It’s smooth but visceral, as Bekmambetov moves the camera around in a way not possible in normal space, combining the very best of CG and practical effects. The adrenaline really gets pumping and you just groove to the thrills as the film pulls not punches. And when they say this is an R-rated film, you better believe it is; you can see every brain splatter and hear every bone crunch.

But that’s not to say that Wanted doesn’t have a down right laughable side to it. So much so that it surprising these little things don’t bring the whole house down. Apparently the Fraternity was started from a society of master weavers and they get their instructions from the “loom of fate.” Now granted the master loom is a great visual, but come on? Weavers. Loom of fate. You’re really pushing things there with the suspension of disbelief and have inadvertently prove that just because some stuff works in comic books it doesn’t mean necessarily that it’ll translate to film.

But aside from matters of the origins, there’s Wesley’s seemingly blink of an eye transformation from Peter Gibbons office punching bag to Jason Bourne-style super killer. It’s rather funny to see Wesley come to realize that all the things he’s been feeling are seemingly connected to his rightful destiny as a super-powered killer, but the turnaround fires so quickly it makes you snicker in Wesley’s seeming indecisiveness. Although the film does play up well that element of fantasy and wish fulfillment: telling off your obnoxious boss, or smacking your smart alecy friend in the face with your ergonomic keyboard.

Unfortunately, these are the only scenes where McAvoy shows some signs of life, otherwise he’s wandering around looking like a deer in the headlights even when he’s supposed to be taking charge. And given the fact that many of McAvoy’s scenes are with Jolie, he really needed to be more focused in order to keep the action centred on him because she quite nearly steals every scene. Jolie, with her looks, her swagger and her strong, silent personality, is the perfect bad girl and is absolutely magnetic whenever she’s in frame. Morgan Freemman, meanwhile, appeared to be having fun doing his best Samuel L. Jackson impression.

Wanted will undoubtedly be satisfying for the summer, action junky crowd but ultimately it’s void of deeper meaning. I don’t feel any particular desire to see it again or wait for a sequel in order to follow the further adventures of Wesley Gibson; there’s something just too nihilistic about the story and concept and the supposed twist was not very twisty. Frankly, I’m not even sure where a sequel could go from here. Still, it’s an impressive movie technically that highlights the work of a pronounced, new filmmaking voice.