Wanted is another comic-book of a movie likely to go over well at the box office, according to analysts. (In fact it's based on the comic books of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones.) It also goes over well with the critics. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times calls it "an action picture that's exhausting in its relentless violence and its ingenuity in inventing new ways to attack, defend, ambush and annihilate." Kyle Smith in the New York Post says that Wanted will satisfy most audience's wants: "a stunt sundae with stunt sauce on the side and a side order of stunts." Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News predicts that "your adrenal glands will be working overtime." And Claudia Puig in USA Today concludes: "The thrilling stunts and hyperkinetic action scenes are the undisputed stars of this surprisingly entertaining film." On the other hand, Manohla Dargis in the New York Times suggests that all the furious mayhem really signifies not a whole lot. "Beating down the audience is what the crudest entertainments try to do, and in this respect, and in every other, Wanted is nothing new," she writes. And Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle observes: "There are two ways, equally valid, of looking at Wanted: (1) as a go-for-broke action movie of mixed quality and modest but definite entertainment value, or (2) as a sick, sick movie for a sick, sick public." He then goes on to make the case for both viewpoints, concluding, "The sound of cheering you'll hear tonight in the multiplex is not good news."
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