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Why are films like Wanted so popular among young men? | Megan Basham

If nothing else, accepting a role in Wanted, the outrageously violent and seriously R-rated action movie that is fast becoming a phenomenon at the box office, was a good career move for James McAvoy.

Had he not played Wesley Gibson, a cubicle-drone-turned-assassin, so well, he might have had to continue building his resumé in children's fantasies like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or in complex period dramas like Atonement and The Last King of Scotland. In short, he might have become Colin Firth—someone respected by critics and beloved by female moviegoers, but whose name draws blank stares from the majority of males between the ages of 18 and 30.

There's no danger of that happening now. It's not just that McAvoy is a far better actor than most action-movie leads, or that his costar is Angelina Jolie—the pinup girl for over-the-top tattoos and gun-toting. It's that Wanted taps into the same fears and fantasies that made Fight Club and The Matrix favorites among a huge number of young and not-so-young men.