"Wanted” is a strange, yet mostly satisfying, mix of comedy, drama and action. It’s not that blending these three genres is so unusual, it’s just the way this one is done.

The movie opens with lead character Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) providing a voice-over, commenting on his life, which is playing out before the audience’s eyes — much the way John Cusack does in many of his films.

The voice-over adds to the comedy element, adding a lightness to parts of the film. However, most of the film’s plot doesn’t lend itself to that kind of cheeky self-mockery, so at some point, the voice-over drops out of the picture until the end.

I think the voice-over faded away about the time the action started — that would be when Angelina Jolie’s Fox enters, changing Gibson’s life from office drone to assassin-in-training.

Turns out that Gibson has inherited his father’s heightened senses and ability to “curve” a bullet, making him a great candidate for becoming an assassin.

The movie excels at the action and visual effects. When Gibson and Fox are on the job, amazing things happen — things that fall under the category of “who cares if it couldn’t really happen, it’s awesome!”

And the whole idea of being able to shoot a gun in such a way that the bullet would actually curve around objects to hit a hidden target is just cool. Totally unbelievable, of course, but who cares? This is a summer action flick. This is the type of film the phrase “suspended disbelief” was made for.

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McAvoy has that uncommon ability to believably portray someone so average that he is forgettable as well as someone so charismatic that he is unforgettable. And in this film he gets to do a bit of both.

In a way this is a transformation movie. It is not only the story of the birth of a “hero,” it is also the story of how a downtrodden man finds new reason for life. And McAvoy does an admirable job showing this transformation.

The movie had a very clever way of dealing with the fact that Gibson had never discovered his hidden talents before: misinterpretation. In setting Gibson up as someone who misinterpreted what his heightened abilities really were, there is also a sly comment on our modern day penchant for turning to prescription drugs to solve what we think ails us. Gibson pops anti-anxiety drugs when stress brings his abilities to the fore, thinking that his hyper-awareness is a panic attack.

Jolie is also good here, channeling a harder-edged version of her “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” character. Though her character seems to delight in her gruesome job, Jolie manages to also make Fox sympathetic.

As for Morgan Freeman, well, he’s always good. His role here as Sloan (the head assassin) is reminiscent of Donald Sutherland’s character in the movie “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”: He enlightens the new recruit of his unique abilities and offers him a new life of saving the world.

Though filled with high quality actors, two things detract from the film: gore and foul language.

I’m not particularly squeamish about either gore or language, but there were moments in this movie when one or the other was just a bit too much. When the bloody violence or off-color language are so over-used that they become a distraction, then they are no longer adding anything useful to the film. Unfortunately, that was the case here in a few places.

Another area where the film was weak was in the use of voice-over for humorous effect. In a way, it is as if the film can’t decide if it wants to be an irreverent comment on wasting one’s life in an unfulfilling job, or if it wants to be a serious graphic novel action film.

In trying to be both, the writers, director and producers weakened the entire thing. It’s not that an action movie can’t be funny, it’s that the filmmakers need to commit to it, and unfortunately they didn’t. By giving in to the pull to be serious in the middle, they made the attempts at sly humor through Gibson’s commentary feel out of place.

Yet despite too much blood and an uneven feel, the movie still entertains. It’s hard not to have a good time at a movie with such a cool premise and such amazing stunts and effects. Not to mention the charming cast.

(Rated: R; 3 1/2 stars out of 5.)

Amanda Brooks can be reached at 737-1057 or at abrooks@lompocrecord.com.