Common Man's View 'iBoy'

I call it a common man's review because I have no experience as a critic, no mastery of language to make me a great wordsmith, and no power over my own mind to breakthrough my own opinions. With that being said, I find myself quite in awe of the minds behind the great works of science fiction. Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, George Lucas, The Wachowskis—what, did you think it was all old masterpieces? Every fantasy I have seems to revolve around some great scientific breakthrough-typically time travel or teleportation. iBoy though—well that would suit me just as well.

First, the general plot. Imagine Mr. Robot meets The Matrix. A young man, with no particular notable talents save he seems to be a good student, witnesses a tragedy befall his high school crush...but instead of standing up for her, he runs. Doesn't matter, he gets shot anyway while attempting to call for emergency services and—lo and behold—the bullet shatters his phone and bits of the phone get lodged inside his brain. Now young Tom has the ability to interface with what seems to be literally any piece of technology—though the ability seems to come and go in some instances, we only see him blow up a few kitchen appliances. Tom uses this newfound power to pay bills, spy on strangers and—ah yes, most important—get revenge on the gang boss who ordered the attack on his dear friend Lucy.

Previously, in my review of The Ritual, I seem to recall diving directly into spoiler warning territory, so I'll set aside a brief moment to just what I thought of the movie itself. While it is laced with all the things that make stupid teenage hero flicks bad—like stupid teenage heroes always being the most unaware of the consequences of their actions—it is definitely one of my favorites so far. Though the movie lacks any hard science fiction themes—no one blows up a Higgs-Boson particle and teleports themselves to an alternate Earth—this take on the vigilante hacker is exceedingly pleasing in its own right. While I'm not apt to re-watch a lot of movies in my down time—my wife always seems to get upset with me—I believe I'll spend my two hours of alone time tomorrow watching this one again...while I probably punch out another Netflix movie review. So one out of one “common man” would watch again. There ya have it.

Now, what makes this movie so great is the exact comparison I made earlier. It is some imaginative British cross between the hit series Mr. Robot and the Wachowskis' (do I address them in regards to older material as the Wachowskis or the Wachowski Brothers? Eh.) masterpiece The Matrix. While our hero is definitely not trapped in a virtual version of our world, he is trapped in the virtual networks of which our world is made up. While he is no master hacker, he does indefinitely do a lot of hacking. It's just less intuitive skill and more a combination of “I know Kung Fu” and “Show me” methodology. By observing things online through rapid scans using his “smart brain,” Tom is able to take down a man twice his size, hack into numerous secure networks and accounts without ever being tracked and yes, even listen to other people's phone calls. He also fully automates a car at one point, not certain what that's about. All of this culminates in a big final battle where, despite being literally out-numbered, out-gunned and over-powered, our friend goes all “The One” and projects an energy field from his body that, as best I can tell, instantly stops the big bad's heart.

On the outskirts of this movie is a budding romance between Bill Milner, apparently young Erik Lehnsherr (I had no idea how to spell that until just now, shame on me) from X-Men First Class, and Maisie Williams, who portrays Arya in HBO's Game of Thrones. While Tom (Milner) repeatedly lets Lucy (Williams) down and immediately following lifts her back up, Lucy never gets tired of his...bollocks? The two were made for each other, snarky British comedy is built right into their dialogue, a match made in heaven. They go on a couple of dates, a fancy riverside restaurant that serves fries in a disposable foam bowl—never mind that Lucy apparently hates ducks—and a top of the apartment complex picnic—according to Lucy there are in fact restaurants that will prepare meals for you, Tom seems dumbstruck. Sadly, Tom misses the most important date—much like his vigilante idol Batman—and does not escort Lucy to exams.

While Tom is dealing with lady problems, we also get to witness the grand revelation that literally everyone and their nan is tied up with this gang. Literally, Tom's nan has some association with the big bad, but I think this is more just that he's always been trouble. Of course the kids from school that raped Lucy are part of the gang, but did you know that Tom's best friend Danny is also part of the gang? It's cool though, he's got that Suzaku (Kururugi, Code Geass) mentality going on, he's gonna change the gang from the inside, one day he'll be a boss and it'll all be better. Well, it's cool until Danny turns Tom over to the sleaze-bag boss for a wad of cold, hard cash...which he eats...because gang boss.

I might comment on the beautiful score selected for this peace, that so perfectly accentuated every moment of the movie, but it wasn't Baby Driver. I don't even know if they played music throughout the movie. Ah, there was one great thing about the sound. That noise like a cell signal interfering with an analog television. I can hear it now, like an animatronic horse trotting through a digital field of dull musical notes. Th-th-thump, th-th-thump, th-th-thump. Let's face it, the possible psychosis that this constant noise could bring on is a small price to pay for this amazing superpower.

Oh, there's also this whole online persona bringing vigilante justice to the neighborhood and the main character making up his internet handle based on a pun—iBoy—and, it reminds me very much of Death Note's “Kira”—the Netflix one where he made it up himself, not the good one.