Available on NetFlix
Synopsis (IMDB): After being shot while calling for help trying to stop a violent attack on a high school girl, a 16 year old boy awakens from a coma to discover that fragments of his smart phone have embedded in his brain, giving him super powers. He uses this knowledge and technology to exact revenge on the gang responsible for the attack.
This film is based on a book of the same name written by Kevin Brooks. I admit, I have not read the book and I am interested to see how the book is in relation to the movie. The film itself is actually pretty good. It is shot like an indie film and uses the CG in interesting and subtle ways. Now being completely honest the mere fact that a person is shot in the head and pieces of his phone get embedded in his brain and said person survives is ridiculous in and of itself. I totally admit that, however, the strength of the movie lies with the characters. The setting for this movie is England and from what I can only guess is a housing project. There is a gang going around terrorizing the city and crime is on the rise. Tom, our resident geek turned hero, longs for the affections of his classmate Lucy which everyone in school knows. Lucy asks him to come over one night and when he goes to see her she is being assaulted. Terrified he runs and tries to call for help when he is shot by the worlds most horrible shot. Even though the movie stars a mostly young cast they do not shy away from adult themes. Lucy is the victim of a gang rape and the movie goes on to show the effect it has on her. Maisie Williams, is awesome in this role. If you don’t know who that is, it’s Arya Stark from Game of Thrones. It’s here that the movie turns into a revenge movie. As Tom learns he has these abilities he figures out who hurt Lucy and in return he sets out to destroy their lives through various means. The other thing that I like about this movie is the fact that Tom’s revenge does have consequences and he finds this out the hard way. It’s very interesting to see this kid who is obviously a geek do something about a horrible situation only to realize that he really didn’t think it all the way through. I also like how just because Tom now has powers they didn’t turn him into this ridiculous martial artist/MI-6 agent. They kept him the geek that can’t take a punch and that gets genuinely scared when he is in way to deep.
As much as I liked this movie I did have a few problems with it. It is important to note that this is a British movie. By British I mean thick British accents are all over the place. It’s not a problem in most of the film but there are a couple of key scenes where it is hard to understand what the actors are saying. If you saw Kingsmen it is basically the Pub scene all over again. Also the main villain does not show his face until the very end of the film and I really just didn’t care. He wasn’t that threatening to me, as you literally meet him for about fifteen minutes and the movie is over. To me, they should have let his lieutenant be the main villain of the film as you spend a little more time with him. One other thing that I found to be odd is that it is never explained how the gang figures out his powers. The last thing that I noticed was that the editing was off in certain scenes. It isn’t atrocious but it is noticeable especially towards the end of the movie.
For Parents
This movie is rated TV-MA for Mature audiences. Outside of the rape scene which you never fully see, I don’t think that it’s a bad movie for teens and up to see. There is scenes of violence and one of the gang members dies in a truly jacked up way but I don’t think that its that bad. The movie is paced very well and clocks in at an hour and a half. The movie does have a twist in it that I did not see coming and they kind of left it open for a sequel. It’s really interesting to me how they ended this one.
Final Verdict
This movie is rated TV-MA for Mature audiences. Outside of the rape scene which you never fully see, I don’t think that it’s a bad movie for teens and up to see. There is scenes of violence and one of the gang members dies in a truly jacked up way but I don’t think that its that bad. The movie is paced very well and clocks in at an hour and a half. The movie does have a twist in it that I did not see coming and they kind of left it open for a sequel. It’s really interesting to me how they ended this one.
Final Verdict
I enjoyed this movie. I liked the story and the acting. Outside of those two scenes where I couldn’t understand what was being said I thought that was done great. The CG also wasn’t bad as this movie only had a budget of 1.5 million dollars. I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix.
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