Half decent special effects, acting not bad, story could have been a winner but the actual idea that having a piece of a broken smartphone in your head (we are never told if its an iphone and it didn't look like one) and turning you into a superpower hero is just laughable it actually sounds like something a schoolboy had written for his first year in English class fiction studies! What is it with British films these days they used to be so wonderful. But it also has terrible writing, uncomfortable morals, lackluster action, questionable plot twists and an overall poor structure. Always! Especially if handled this egregiously. It's powers as the plot demands, and that is always a terrible idea. It's super martial arts, mind control, blaster powers, anything and everything under the sun basically. The problem is the way these powers are showcased. The way the main character gets the powers is cheesy enough that it circles around and lands on the right side of the line. Plus, the central idea, that of super hacking, is not handled correctly. But this film tries to be grim and realistic. Many a grindhouse film has been nothing more than a revenge fantasy. And that would be fine with the right tone. The story is nothing more than a revenge fantasy. Unfortunately the story and its execution are garbage. I also like the two main actors, especially Williams, who gives a very credible performance as a strong person with inner fire brought low by the cruelty of life. The way it's depicted here is perhaps the easiest way around the visualization issue, but for a low-budget film such as this one, I'm willing to give it a pass. Super hacking as as a power is something you could definitely build a movie around. Pieces of his phone get blasted into his brain and this gives him the superpower of control over all things electronic. Recommended!Ī teenage boy (Bill Milner), living in the London outskirts, gets shot in the head as he stumbles upon his friend (Maisie Williams) getting raped. In short, given the brilliant idea, the solid execution and its ability to keep the viewer both offguard and entertained at the same time, this a fun flick deserving of a higher IMDb score than I am seeing. And Rory Kinnear as the arch-villain almost but not quite moves into the rarefied air of a Bond film - you keep waiting for him to say "WHAT DO I WANT IBOY, I WANT YOU TO DIE" - but shows enough restraint to keep from falling over the edge. Maisie Williams steals every scene not otherwise nailed down and does so with a sweetness of character that makes you wish you knew someone like her when you were in school. The two best performances come from supporting actors - another oddity. There are some pacing issues here and there, and it takes a while for the young lead to develop a character arc that the audience is comfortable with, but the suspense/payoff is rock-solid and nail-biting and the close is edgy but respectful and optimistic. And that is a mouthful because I have watched and reviewed a lot of films (check out my list, about 1300) and have never seen anything quite like this before. Instead what you get is a solid Brit "estate gang" story (like Harry Brown 2009 or a dozen others you could probably recite from memory) with some Marvel/Spiderman superhero stuff cleverly thrown in. Cause that is simply not going to happen. The biggest mistake you can make going into iBoy is expecting something from the Marvel catalog.
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