iBOY (2017)

Studio:       Netflix
Director:    Adam Randall
Writer:       Joe Barton, Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood, Kevin Brooks
Producer:  Gail Mutrux, Nate Bolotin, Emily Leo, Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh
Stars:     Bill Milner, Maisie Williams, Jordan Bolger, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Aymen Hamdouchi, Rory Kinnear, Miranda Richardson

Review Score:

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Summary:

After a violent assault leaves a cellphone embedded in his brain, a teenager uses newfound mental hacking abilities to exact his revenge.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In the gang-controlled community of Crowley Estate, teenager Tom Harvey goes to see his classmate Lucy Hawkins, whom he has a crush on, and interrupts four masked boys in the act of assaulting Lucy and her brother Ben. Tom calls for help on his cellphone as he runs away, but is shot from behind.

Tom wakes in the hospital ten days later to learn that fragments from the phone became embedded in his brain. Tom gradually discovers that he now has the ability to mentally hack electronics including computers and phones.

Tom suspects that local bully Eugene orchestrated the attack, although Tom’s friend Danny dismisses the idea. While fostering a relationship with Lucy, Tom creates the vigilante persona ‘iBoy’ to anonymously take revenge against their attackers.

Tom confirms that Eugene and his accomplices Cass, Ant, and Hazzard assaulted Lucy when he hacks into video footage on Eugene’s phone. Tom embarrasses Cass by uploading a webcam video of Cass masturbating to the screen at a school assembly.

Tom remotely traps the four boys in a car and sets it on fire, demanding through the radio for someone to confess who ordered the attack on Lucy. Cass admits that their boss, Cutz, put them up to it. The boys escape the car before it explodes.

Tom lures Cutz and his henchman out of Cutz’s flat. Tom then mentally explodes all of the apartment’s electronics and steals a stash of cocaine. Tom plants the drugs in the homes of several of Cutz’s henchmen and tips off police, who end up arresting half of Cutz’s crew.

Tom eavesdrops on one of Cutz’s phone calls and learns that Cutz answers to crime kingpin Ellman. In retaliation against iBoy’s ongoing efforts to bust up the gang’s control over Crowley Estate, Cutz sends his remaining crew on a home invasion spree throughout the area. Cutz also confronts Cass with an accusation that Cass revealed his identity to iBoy.

Cutz’s crew briefly captures and beats Tom as Tom sabotages one of their shipments at the docks. Tom escapes by making all of the men hear a high-pitched noise.

Beaten so badly, Tom is unable to keep his promise to accompany Lucy to exams. Lucy later admonishes Tom for disappointing her. The two of them are shocked to see Cass’ murdered body hanging in their complex’s courtyard.

Accompanied by Cutz and his henchman Keon, Ellman confronts Tom and his grandmother Nan inside their apartment. Ellman has Cutz restrain Nan in another room. Having discovered Tom’s ability, Ellman tasks Tom with electronically transferring money into his bank account. When Tom refuses, Ellman reveals that Eugene, Ant, and Hazzard are holding Lucy at gunpoint in a warehouse. Ellman also reveals that Tom’s friend Danny is the person who told him what Tom could do, and Danny sold out Tom in exchange for money.

Tom transfers funds into Ellman’s account. He also remotely dials a phone at the warehouse to summon the police.

Police arrive at the warehouse, but leave when everyone hides. However, Lucy is able to recover one of the guns afterward and turns the tables on her kidnappers.

Unable to reach anyone at the warehouse, Ellman, Cutz, and Keon take Tom there. Once everyone, including Eugene and his two accomplices, becomes engaged in a standoff, Tom remotely explodes everyone’s phones and escapes outside.

Ellman recovers and attacks Tom in the rain. Lucy comes out pointing a gun at Ellman. Ellman attacks Lucy. Tom is able to knock Ellman down by emitting an EMP wave from his body.

Tom and Nan recover. Danny, now the top gang leader in the area, tries apologizing for betraying Tom. Tom infers Danny was likely the person who filmed the video of Lucy’s assault. Tom and Lucy reconcile and rekindle their budding romance.

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Review:

Some people can’t get a cellphone to work again after dropping it once on the carpet.  Teenager Tom Harvey, on the other hand, ends up with mental computer hacking abilities when his handset becomes embedded in his brain after a violent assault.  Ashamed of abandoning his classmate crush Lucy during the attack, Tom looks for redemption by becoming an anonymous vigilante, using his newfound powers to unmask the mystery men behind the crime.

What a teenager, the film’s presumed target audience, might think about the premise of “iBoy:”

“Hey, this is pretty cool!”

What an adult film critic thinks instead:

“In what world of medical improbabilities is it remotely possible for a phone, even fragments of a phone, to safely lodge inside a human head?  Are iBoy’s abilities dated to this iteration of technology?  What happens when the OS has a firmware update?  Does he have to dunk his dome in a bag of rice after showering?”

I don’t actually know if a young millennial audience would take to “iBoy.”  I prefer to think lower ages don’t evenly equate to lower standards, and they would prefer a movie with higher entertainment value.

But I’m willing to concede “iBoy” wasn’t made with me in mind, and those for whom it was intended probably won’t see things the same way.  My seasoned cynicism may come from a perception this movie has no use for, like a 75-year-old priest criticizing a married mother’s favorable opinion of “50 Shades of Gray.”

However, before dismissing my observations on similar grounds, consider that “iBoy” is based on a young adult novel of the same name by author Kevin Brooks, who was 50 at the time of publication in 2010.  Perhaps it is the material that is out of touch, rather than just me.

Maybe a cellphone jammed in a skull isn’t any more outrageous of a way to obtain superpowers than being bitten by a radioactive spider.  Be it Narnia’s wardrobe portal to another world or “The Human Centipede’s” unique dietary tract, often you have to get over an impossible premise to get into the fantasy that follows.

Except “iBoy” occurs in a grounded reality where the science behind forcibly inserted electronics essentially granting magical abilities is beyond unbelievable.  This isn’t a colorful comic book world.  This isn’t darkly humorous horror.  This isn’t dystopian science-fiction commenting on contemporary culture.  “iBoy” takes place in a crime-dominated environment of gangs, poverty, rape, drug abuse, and a stratified social structure.  It isn’t even in the neighborhood of having the atmosphere necessary to pull off its plot.

Even if you hop over the hump of its setup, issues on the other side don’t justify the blind eye.  “iBoy” is a morass of incomplete characterizations, unfinished subplots, and depressing fiction failing to incite excitement.

Main character Tom is given a smattering of background bits meant to make him likable, such as his crush on a cute girl at school, mention of overcoming an absent addict mother, and the inherent sympathy that comes with being shot in the head.  None of these things actually constitute a character.  Tom is as plain as protagonists come, and played as flat as a board through more moping and silent stares than can be counted.

Tom’s grandmother Nan has the no-nonsense attitude of a caring guardian with a bloodhound nose for trouble.  She also happens to be an amusingly aspiring romance novelist.  Yet infusing her with personality doesn’t give it to Tom through osmosis.  Each time there is a pause for Nan to temporarily get in Tom’s way, main arc movement hits a wall.

A talented cast can’t fatten slim supporting parts because they’re written so minimally.  Maisie Williams of “Game of Thrones” is wasted as the object of Tom’s affection, with “iBoy” teasing Lucy as both a Lois Lane and a Mary Jane and then delivering on neither.  Rory Kinnear does all he can to flesh out his role as head honcho in the hoodlum hierarchy.  Even he can’t cut through the cliché of being a tea-sipping villain sitting cross-legged and reading while his henchmen beat the hero.

It could be that a millennial audience is young enough to have not yet overdosed on slow-motion climaxes set in the rain or to not see immediately through the sheep’s clothing of a supposed friend too eager to turn Tom’s attention in a different direction.  It’s my true hope that most will see “iBoy” with the exuberant eyes required to eke out an enjoyable escapist experience.  It’s my sad suspicion that many will find “iBoy” taking itself too seriously, content with convention when it could unleash the kraken of its crazy concept if only it had flair or ferocity.

Review Score:  45

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