Director: Adam Randall
Writers: Joe Barton (screenplay), Joe Barton
Stars: Bill Milner, Maisie Williams, Miranda Richardson
I have to admit, going into a film named “iBoy” I made the cardinal sin of judging a book by its cover or in this case a film by its title.
The story is about teenage schoolboy Tom (Bill Milner) who is attacked by a gang on his housing estate in London. One of the gang members pulls a gun on Tom and as he is running away they chase after him. Frantically trying to escape the gang whilst he tries to call for help on his phone only to be shot in the right side of his head causing the phone to splinter into a thousand pieces with some of the phone shrapnel going into Tom’s head.
From this day forth Tom, you will be known as………iBoy. *groans*
In fact, the concept isn’t any dumber than a man being exposed to Gamma Rays and turning green, or a teenage boy being bitten by a radioactive spider developing superpowers or……..well you get where I’m going with this. IF Stan Lee wrote this and IF The MCU released this….. probably with a cooler name than iBoy (which sounds more like a cheap imitation of Nintendo’s famous handheld console), he would make a pretty awesome Superhero.
Unfortunately this was made in the U.K. In London. On a budget that Marvel probably would pay for one trailer to keep Robert Downey Jnr’s espressos warm.
I’m not slating the quality of the film, Infact the visuals are pretty great with iBoy able to see 3-D visions of everyone’s mobile phones, tablets and so on. Full credit goes to Alexander Gunn (special effects supervisor) and Kali Tattersall (special effects technician) for visualising iBoys perspective and giving the audience an insight to what our hero sees and of course Eben Bolter the director of photography for a very slick production.
This is just him discovering his powers and soon his confidence is growing and before you know it he’s controlling anything and everything electronic. Time for revenge on the gang and the mastermind behind them.
Bill Milner (Tom) gives a solid performance as iBoy (but to be fair he played a superhero before…..remember he was a young Erik Lensherr in X-Men: First Class. He gives us the classic comic book burden all teenagers have to carry…with great power there is great respon…..well you get it.
Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones and Doctor Who) plays Lucy and for someone only turning 20 years old this year is beyond her years and nails every scene she is in.
Rory Kinnear (Ellman) as the villain only comes into the movies last third and I felt with someone of his calibre should have been used more. Ellman is the mastermind behind the gang and controls them with arrogance and ruthlessness. Ellman isn’t intimidated by Tom’s powers and in fact realises that iBoy could be useful to him, but only if he has leverage.
Miranda Richardson plays Tom’s Nan (Grandmother) and shows her presence in the limited time she is on screen who is not only Tom’s Nan but also his guardian. It is mentioned briefly that Tom’s mother must have passed away in probably what was drugs related.
In short, given the great idea on a budget has the ability to keep the viewer both offguard and intrigued at the same time, this an enjoyable film that I never expected much from and praise has to go to Director Adam Randall who I believe only has five Directorial credits to his name with three of them being Shorts. Randall’s vision for iBoy is decent and delivers.
Movie Burner Entertainment 