I went to see Wanted for just one reason: Angelina Jolie. I reckon I'd go and see her in just about anything. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy the film: it's about a league of assassins and it has an 18 certificate: that would normally be a big red flag for me. But I really, really enjoyed it.

Let's start with what's wrong with the film, because there is a lot wrong with it and I want to get that part out of the way.

If I've gotten the right impression from the various reviews and articles, Wanted is based on a very dark comic-book in which the super-villains have defeated all the super-heroes and taken over the world, which would at least make sense of the notion of a league of assassins being the good guys. However, this background is missing from the movie. Instead we have...well, "preposterous" is the kindest word for the plot. A thousand-year-old secret society of assassins formed from a league of cloth weavers, who take their orders from "the Loom of Fate" (no, I'm not making that up!). It's as if someone figured the comic-book plot would be too much for mainstream audiences, but didn't realise they were replacing it with something even Dan Brown would agree strains credulity just a wee bit. But what the hell, right?

It's also an extremely violent and misogynistic film. The latter is probably not surprising for an action movie, especially one based on a comic ('cause we all know what a bastion of gender equality the comics industry is, right?) but it must be said anyway. The movie offers three examples of womanhood: the fat-bitch-boss who bullies everyone to hide her own low self-esteem and apparently has a stapler fetish; the sleazy girlfriend who complains and nags and cheats; and then there's Angelina Jolie's character, Fox. Fox, though there's some attempt to make her sympathetic, is still essentially a sociopathic sex-kitten. Real bad score there. I'll admit that the men don't come off much better, though. None of the characters are truly likeable.

The moral centre of the film is...well, missing. The core characters are assassins, the supposed hero shows a remarkable lack of conscience when introduced to his - ahem - destiny and there's a huge implied body-count which is barely even acknowledged. At one point a train full of passengers falls into a gorge and the general attitude of the movie is all that death doesn't matter because the hero survived. The violence is bloody and in places it's a bit too much for my taste. Some of the language isn't stuff I'd allow in my living room, either.

Now, all of that said, I want to tell you why I think this is one of the best movies I've seen this year, in spite of all those very real flaws.

( Cut for length and plot spoilers )