As wish fulfillment fantasies for adolescent boys go, Timur Bekmambetov's bullet-bending, "Matrix"-cribbing "Wanted" hits most of the expected bloody beats, though an argument or two could be made over the validity of its premise.

While there's little doubt that a passenger-seat view of Angelina Jolie driving a red Ferrari lying flat on her back atop the car's hood would offer a new perspective on life's possibilities, "Wanted" takes its jittery, Red Bull rush a step further and proposes a new cure for the workingman's blues.

Just kill everyone.

There. Doesn't that feel better?

"Wanted" is all about taking CONTROL (this is an all-caps kind of move), and, at the outset, nobody needs to hear that message more than cuckolded drone Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy). Wesley works as an account manager in a drab Chicago office building that's presided over by a grotesque woman that would give Goya nightmares.

Picking up a prescription of the meds he gulps to combat his frequent anxiety attacks, Wesley looks over and notices Angelina Jolie has sidled up next to him. Jolie is playing a character here named Fox, but really she's just Angelina in all her heavily tattooed slinky sexuality, smiling knowingly and offering Wesley a way out of his anesthetized existence.

So begins our Neo's journey from numbness to greatness. Turns out Wesley has a connection to a secret society of assassins called The Fraternity. Fox is a member. So is Sloan (Morgan Freeman), who instructs Wesley on the Ways of the Force or, in this case (I kid you not), The Loom, a machine that weaves a secret code containing the names of The Frat's future targets.

"The Loom provides, I interpret, you deliver," Sloan tells Wesley, never once explaining why The Loom wants certain people dead, though we're left to imagine it probably has something to do with polyester blends and low thread counts.

Russian director Bekmambetov knows how to make things go splat in ways that are satisfying and repulsive and consistently shows an awareness of his comic-book source material's inherent silliness. The familiarity of story doesn't help his cause. When it's not stealing from "The Matrix," "Wanted" takes a page from "Star Wars," none of which would be bothersome if it weren't so obvious.

McAvoy, despite the occasional lapse back into his Scottish burr, is fine playing the young American dreamer. But the movie really needs more Angie, whose magnetism is missed whenever she isn't on the screen.

Then again, the filmmakers seem more interested in toys and guns than women, a common affliction to this set. And Bekmambetov doesn't always know when to stop with the squibs. The movie's most spectacular detonation comes from Freeman impeccably delivering a profanity. Bekmambetov seems to understand this. But he can't help himself. Dude loves to watch brain bits fly.

Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp@dailynews.com

review>

WANTED

>R: strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality.

>Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie.

>Director: Timur Bekmambetov.

>Running time: 1 hr. 50 min.

>Playing: Area wide.

>In a nutshell: Red-Bull-fueled adolescent male fantasy cribs from the past, while offering a few brain-splatting diversions of its own.