The Anomaly

Noel Clarke thinks he's Will Smith, turns out he isn't.

This is a poor, predictable, sci-fi romp which appears to be an excuse for Noel to be the tough but sensitive guy at every opportunity. All the major plot lines are here; convenient snippets of information learned by the 'hero' through the film, dead wife (for no apparent reason), acts a tough guy while on a mission to save a child, the only woman to appear more than once falls in love with him, last minute twist, it just goes on and on, and on.......*yawn*

You can't help but think that Noel had to direct the film too because no-one but Noel could make Noel such a hero.

After seeing the movie and reading the reviews I can say that some comments are fair to this film. The premise is very much lifted from Total Recall and Memento with an amnesiac finding out who he is and why he's in the locations he wakes up in. The movie really falls apart as it really should have been produced on a much bigger budget. Doing this on a small budget results in little sets, sparse actors & extras plus limited CGI. This results in the audience being constantly underwhelmed by scenarios and situations that should really be a wow factor. Fight scenes for example seem to be there mostly to fill time and are slowed down for supposed effect but really they show just poor choreography.Noel is not actually a very good actor to be fair so this is more a vanity project as another reviewer pointed out. The ending of the movie was very trite and clumsy but to be honest, a lot of the movie was that. To summarise, a big budget movie done on a small budget results in the feeling of being let down.

This is my first review so I'll make this quick.

I had to review because I was so disappointed

Ideas 8. Interesting new take on Future Tech Decent Sci-Fi plot. However, although the story jumped around a bit, what was the Plane all about? Fight Scenes 2 (shocking) Was that supposed to be Martial Arts? It was somewhere between Crap Eastern moves and slightly advanced street fighting. Arrogance 9. Smug acting from the protagonists Nemesis. Overall Acting 4 (woeful) Some real bad acting from the supporting cast. Ego 10. Clarkes Baby, probably. I'm surprised he didn't sing the theme tune

Could Do Better.

The central idea of Anomaly is a familiar one to recent science fiction fans, as well as fans of the Jason Bourne series. That wouldn't particularly matter if The Anomaly had its own sense of identity or style. It does not.

The idea for films like this is to create a sense of mystery. Initially the film succeeds in doing this, but after some poor dialogue and clumsy info-dumps I suspect that most viewers will stop caring what the film is about. There is no sense of tension and, ironically, the ticking clock that the narrative needs is missing.

some of the performances are below par and The Anomaly feels like a vanity project for Noel Clarke, who casts himself as the hero and directs.

The Anomaly is basically a sci-fi film with only one point of view. It doesn't give much exposition to its questionable futuristic world, unless it has something to do with the main character's fight against his own odds. The plot is appropriately straightforward, even with its heavy ideas, it all consistently fits. However what isn't so clever is how it is put together. How the character picks up the pieces of information is drab and incoherent, that seems like the filmmakers doesn't care much of the mystery and instead focus more on its style. While those pretentious use of slow-motion and lens flares can be cool to look at, it also robs the potential of being at least a solid science fiction film. It's far from horrible as what many people have called it, but then it is also true at being a typical action film that you would watch when you are bored in an afternoon.

By looking at its aesthetics, people might be impressed, especially if you acknowledged its non-blockbuster budget. But it might as well gloss over to the fact that it is a vaguely defined future. We're not even sure if is this really the future or just an alternate universe. Nobody even mentions the year and some of its product placements are too modern (notice the poster of 2013's We're The Millers). A goof like this may be forgiven if the world itself isn't this charmless. The flavor it eagerly provides is the colorful lights. The weapons, the devices, etc. consist lights with certain types of color to undoubtedly match its lens flares. And there is no distinction either in every place they stop into. Whenever it passes from London to New York to wherever else, the additional objects we only see, to make sure that this isn't the same world we are living in right now, are holograms and blips that look exactly the same. And what these things showcase in their screens might indicate a commentary of having an overly commercialized society, but that only leaves to a theory.

The real pivotal hook here is the high-concept. It has to be simple, though the huge deficiency takes place at the first act when it introduces its concept by jumping into various time and countries to show off a set of stylish set pieces and visuals. It gets a lot interesting when the real questions finally unfolds, despite that it is usually tension free. Slick direction helps to keep the attention on, and it's probably too slick for its own good. It's still fine to follow the rest of this nonsense, even though it keeps reverting its potential darkness to silly moves and an unbelievably big deus ex machina. What people would likely complain the most are the often interrupting action scenes that seems to solely exist to look cool than to drive tension. Its trademark slow-mo fights have a groan-worthy welcome, though the extended choreography in the middle eventually becomes entertaining. We should admit that most of them are just unnecessary and difficult to take seriously, but sometimes there is an advantage to it since this is already a bland universe.

As for the acting: Ian Somerhalder could have been effective as the villain if he provides a sense of psychosis, but just like everyone else he is there to look cool. The lack of convincing his nefarious intentions sucks out the fun whenever he is around. The real pleasure is when (possibly spoilers) some of the characters become surrogates of Brian Cox. Cox himself is mostly there to be strapped on a machine and phone in to a footage, but when Clarke and Hemsworth do the impression for him, it becomes ludicrously entertaining.

There is a sense of competency to be found in The Anomaly that sort of glosses the fact that it is still a generic action, and as a directorial debut of its star, it must be a little surprise of not being a total disaster, but this is still not as smart neither as awesome as it wanted to be. With a little vibe of inspiration to The Matrix; single-word title, mind-blowing concept, with cool looking characters, and stylishly constructed slow-mo; the film just doesn't manage to make any of that great. But then there is an undeniable value (plus it is perfectly short), only when there is nothing else interesting around. Because generic action has become so generic, at least this one has an intriguing use of budget, fine to root for concept, a fun mimicry to its only veteran actor, and of course absurd amount of pretty lights.