The Anomaly (2014)

Pretty Good

Disturbing yet enthralling

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I would begrudge the time to write a review, but when I have to abandon a movie - I have time I might otherwise have wasted watching it!The acting lacked commitment, and frankly lacked talent too. The story-line, as far as I got, was uninvolving and failed to suspend my disbelief, or entertain me. The action scenes plainly lacked budget, but also showed little imagination. The cinematography was non-existent, and why did they film almost every single conversation at 45degrees over the shoulder - it was like watching the regional news. The fights were badly edited, poorly shot, and suffered terrible choreography - you could see people trying to find their next positions, awkwardly. There was simply no sense of energy or realism to them.Now I would say, they should have looked at the fights in the Matrix, amongst a great many others... However, they clearly did look! They copied ideas, moves and scenes from all sorts of other films, but failed to honour any of them in the process

If only Noel Clarke had waited a little longer. If he had waited longer then he could have fixed the script and/or got a bigger studio to back him. This would have put this movie into the big leagues - a British Minority Report if you will.Noel Clarke plays Ryan, a PTSD soldier who wakes up in a mysterious place not knowing how he got there. He continues to black out, only becoming himself for a period of ten minutes. It turns out he's being controlled by another personality that has taken over his body and soon learns that the one controlling him has a dangerous objective.This is a great concept, almost like a Memento with the way the narrative flows. The way the story unfolds is intriguing and has you wanting to discover what's going on as much as our protagonist.However there are draw backs which is what I think is what has led to it's low score. The characters aren't very engaging to start. Clarke has proved to be a great actor but he's given himself little to work with here. The B grade villains and weird as hell cops don't help either. Ian Somerhalder is the only one who exerts any form of charisma and is given brief moments to truly shine. Others, however, fall flat.Another thing that bogs the script down is the number of frankly unbelievable plot contrivances. Some characters will make huge logic leaps to further the plot, while other times what our protagonist wants is simply handed to him on a silver plate. I suspect that this may be due to a low budget though which sadly makes the visual FX less than impressive.Another awkward part is the numerous fight scenes. Clarke is many things but he is not a martial artist and it shows quite a bit. The choreography is the standard Bourne rip off filler and it isn't executed very well. Rather than letting it play out in an intense way, the editor opted to constantly speed ramp parts from fast to slow which can look flashy but when it's in every fight scene it gets tiresome. This film could have been great, with more time taken on the script and a Luc Besson type director to give the overall film more of a personality. Perhaps this is a rare instance where more money would have helped a lot.As it is, The Anomaly is an interesting watch, but ultimately a bit forgettable which is a shame with such a good idea.

The storyline was not perfect, but it was not the problem, instead it was the script. Having the lead character being also the director probably didn't help either.You see, The Anomaly is a sort of a Memento thing. A man wakes up in strange circumstances not remembering how he got there. He fights Eatern European mafia, the police, kidnaps kids and psychotic doctors, all the time not knowing what is happening to him. He has to piece it all together and find a way to escape his nightmare.Unfortunately, the confusing moments of the character are also confusing for the viewer, with the amateurish writing spoiling things further. I really like the people in the cast: Noel Clarke of Doctor Who and Prodigy's Invaders Must Die fame, Ian Somerhalder from Vampire Diaries, Brian Cox, Alexis Knapp, even Chris Hemsworth's brother. The props and effects were also OK. Too bad everything was not properly put together.Bottom line: felt like a bad Doctor Who episode, without Doctor Who. The cast did decent, but in the end the writing and probably directing messed it all up. Can be entertaining and it is more original that most movies lately, though.

The acting in this film is the most wooden I have seen since the worst film ever made, "Aurora" - I challenge anyone to sit through all of that! The fighting scenes in the film are, and I am hesitant to use this word as I don't want to offend anyone, but it is the only word that fits - gay. Some of the lamest fighting scenes I have ever seen. The strange thing is, the film itself thinks it's cool as it adds the speed up, slow down, move the camera around tactics of some bigger budget films, but in this film that only serves to highlight how truly wooden the entire film is! The script is just dire. However! The subject matter behind the film is rather interesting and poignant and an interesting reflection of today's controlled society.