Mark Millar Movies
- 2010
Mark Millar's violent comic tale of wannabe superheroes is adapted by writer/director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) with this Marv Films production. Aaron Johnson stars as a teen who steps out of his house one day with a mask and a painted baseball bat and starts to fight crime even though he has no superpowers. Lyndsy Fonseca co-stars as the character's object of desire, with Nicolas Cage also appearing as an ex-cop whose hatred of a drug lord forces him to train his daughter to be a lethal vigilante. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aaron Johnson
- 2008
Not to be confused with director Temur Bekmambetov's feature film adaptation of the same source material, director Joe Whiteaker's take on authors J.G. Jones and Mark Millar's bestselling graphic novel tells the tale of a hypochondriac office drone who suddenly discovers that he is the latest in a long line of dangerous assassins. Wesley Wilson is a nebbish loser whose girlfriend is unfaithful, and who's frequently prone to misinterpreting the common cold as terminal cancer. But all of that changes in the blink of an eye when, one day, Wesley discovers that he is the son of a prominent assassin and member of a clandestine group of supervillans who have been running the world since 1986. His father, a man known only as "The Killer," has recently been slain, and now it Wesley will be trained to take his place among the ranks of the elite underground organization. Over the course of his training, Wesley finally begins to experience a world that he never knew existed. In this world, there are no superheroes - only villains. Now, as Wesley joins the ranks of this diabolical organization, he will do everything in his power to learn the truth about his father's untimely demise. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov helms his first English-language feature film with this big-screen adaptation of Mark Millar's action-packed graphic novel. Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a cube-dwelling hypochondriac whose uneventful life has become a mundane blur of terminal boredom. Repeatedly humiliated by his boss and constantly cuckolded by his cheating girlfriend, weakling Wes seems to be living right down to everyone's expectations that he would never amount to anything in life. However, upon discovering that the father he never knew has been brutally murdered, the spineless, clock-punching pushover is recruited into a secret society of assassins known as the Fraternity. During the course of his training, the man who was once an office-bound wimp develops lightning-fast reflexes and superhuman dexterity courtesy of his skilled mentor Fox (Angelina Jolie). Upon completing his training, Wes is assigned the task of dealing out death to the mythological Fates, who possess the ability to alter the lifelines of mortal men. It isn't long before the nebbish nerd-turned-agile assassin is erasing the bad guys with surprising efficiency, yet as Wes begins to carry the mantle passed down to him by his father, he gradually begins to suspect that his wise tutors are not the crime-fighting enforcers they present themselves to be. Now, with everything he ever wanted in life finally within his grasp, Wes is about to find out that the only thing more difficult than ending the lives of others is summoning the courage to take control of his own. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, (more)
