iBoy
Directed by Adam Randall
- action
- science fiction
The story
After an accident, Tom wakes from a coma to discover that fragments of his smart phone have been embedded in his head, and worse, that returning to normal teenage life is impossible because he has developed a strange set of super powers.
What it’s like
Gritty, handheld urban night photography: rain on wet tarmac, sodium-orange streetlight, the cold blue glow of phone screens lighting faces from below, and grey concrete council estates under heavy skies. Digital overlays and pulsing data graphics flicker across the frame whenever the hero's new abilities switch on, giving the action a restless, electric edge. The score leans on synth throb and thudding bass, with the chase and fight rhythms driving the pace. The mood is bleak, angry, and propulsive, closer to a street revenge thriller than a comic-book adventure, with a teenage boy's confusion and grief running underneath the spectacle. Violence is frequent and physical, with some sharp, brutal fight and crime moments, plus menace and peril throughout; there is no gore for its own sake, but it is not gentle. It suits a late-night watch for viewers who like tense, grounded genre filmmaking, British street crime textures, and a loner protagonist fighting to hold onto his humanity, and it will not fit anyone wanting something soft or low-stakes.
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