he debut American feature by Russian maverick Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch" and its 2006 sequel, "Day Watch") is the ideal, mindless summer thrill. Keep in mind, this violent comic-book adaptation, starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, is one you can never take too seriously.

Based on the graphic novels by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, "Wanted" follows the unlikely transformation of Wesley Gibson (the versatile James McAvoy) from miserable cubicle dweller to master assassin. When we first meet him, Gibson, like Edward Norton's protagonist in Fight Club, is a boring white-collar employee who likes IKEA furniture, and is bullied by his boss.

He is prone to anxiety attacks, which he pops pills to keep these to a minimum. He lives in a crappy apartment, and his girlfriend Cathy (Kristen Hager) is screwing his best friend Barry (Chris Pratt). According to Gibson's own voiceover, he's an "insignificant asshole" who is "finding it hard to care about anything these days. In fact the only thing that I do care about is not caring about anything."

What doesn't generally happen to men like Gibson is the appearance of Angelina Jolie, whose name aptly happens to be Fox, who tells him his father was part of the Fraternity, a cell of super-assassins; apparently, Gibson was abandoned nearly at birth by his father, and now Fox is here to announce that it’s time to follow in his footsteps and assume the mantle.