The Anomaly (2014)

A guy wakes up in a room. There's a flashlight. He finds a kid chained to a wall. He frees him. They tinker with a wall and turns out they are inside a moving armored vehicle. No problem, they just push the door open and jump out when it stops and walk away. They are in London in the future. Well, the guys in the front aren't happy and start chasing them. The two escape to a cemetery where the kid tells him that men in red masks killed his mom. When the bad guys arrive, it turns out that Ryan has some fighting skills and he beats one of them. The other guy knows him. When Ryan starts going through his own pockets he finds a gun and a red mask. But suddenly something strange happens.

Now he wakes up several days later in a room with books and with some type of plan on the wall. The bad guy is there as well. He talks to Ryan as if they work together on some project. We learn more about Ryan. He was military and confined to an institution for PTSD, panic, and anxiety. The boss and researcher there is Dr. Langham who took care of him. The bad guy is working on something that involves the kid.

Again something jarring happens and Ryan wakes up having sex with a prostitute in New York days later. He remembers the kid and decides to take the prostitute with him, but first he has to go through her Russian pimp. More fights ensue. He promises her freedom of she helps him find the kid. Good thing he remembers information from the previous episodes and he notices that each time he has about 10 minutes to get things done before he's transported elsewhere. They escape but the Russians are in pursuit and they also run into the police.

Next he wakes up in a room where a guy is being waterboarded by police. He's there as some physician who OKs whether to continue or stop the "interrogation". The victim is some researcher named Leonid. The two manage to escape. But at every turn the bad guy appears.

Through more of these episodes we discover that Ryan has received some implants by a corporation run by the good Dr. Langham who now has the kid. The aim is through these implants to control people. The problem is that Ryan's implants have a connectivity issue with the satellite which is why he gets these 10 minutes where he gets to be himself. During the other times his body is controlled by Langham. Ryan with the help of the prostitute will try to stop the Langham project to control all humanity and to rescue the kid. He'll have to confront Langham and the bad guy who always shows up and is actually Langham's son.

The Anomaly is interesting and a bit original. It mixes science with futuristic sci-fi with a fight action movie and all told in these short episodes. The science is the strongest aspect. There are also some interesting ideas about humanity and control. I wouldn't recommend looking for plot holes though because there are plenty. The weakest are the fights. Oddly enough it seems that the filmmakers knew the fights were weak too, and how could they not, however instead of trying to mask the weakness they further enhanced it with tricks designed to make good fights look good. Here instead we have several poor fights that looks even worse. They used some jumping camera work and Matrix-like slow-mo editing, which works when fights are fast at normal speeds. But if you have slow and weak punches to begin with and slow them down, well, the result is nothing to brag about. Another problem is the completely uncharismatic lead and a dry villain. You do end up disliking

Fmovies: The Anomaly is basically a sci-fi film with only one point of view. It doesn't give much exposition to its questionable futuristic world, unless it has something to do with the main character's fight against his own odds. The plot is appropriately straightforward, even with its heavy ideas, it all consistently fits. However what isn't so clever is how it is put together. How the character picks up the pieces of information is drab and incoherent, that seems like the filmmakers doesn't care much of the mystery and instead focus more on its style. While those pretentious use of slow-motion and lens flares can be cool to look at, it also robs the potential of being at least a solid science fiction film. It's far from horrible as what many people have called it, but then it is also true at being a typical action film that you would watch when you are bored in an afternoon.

By looking at its aesthetics, people might be impressed, especially if you acknowledged its non-blockbuster budget. But it might as well gloss over to the fact that it is a vaguely defined future. We're not even sure if is this really the future or just an alternate universe. Nobody even mentions the year and some of its product placements are too modern (notice the poster of 2013's We're The Millers). A goof like this may be forgiven if the world itself isn't this charmless. The flavor it eagerly provides is the colorful lights. The weapons, the devices, etc. consist lights with certain types of color to undoubtedly match its lens flares. And there is no distinction either in every place they stop into. Whenever it passes from London to New York to wherever else, the additional objects we only see, to make sure that this isn't the same world we are living in right now, are holograms and blips that look exactly the same. And what these things showcase in their screens might indicate a commentary of having an overly commercialized society, but that only leaves to a theory.

The real pivotal hook here is the high-concept. It has to be simple, though the huge deficiency takes place at the first act when it introduces its concept by jumping into various time and countries to show off a set of stylish set pieces and visuals. It gets a lot interesting when the real questions finally unfolds, despite that it is usually tension free. Slick direction helps to keep the attention on, and it's probably too slick for its own good. It's still fine to follow the rest of this nonsense, even though it keeps reverting its potential darkness to silly moves and an unbelievably big deus ex machina. What people would likely complain the most are the often interrupting action scenes that seems to solely exist to look cool than to drive tension. Its trademark slow-mo fights have a groan-worthy welcome, though the extended choreography in the middle eventually becomes entertaining. We should admit that most of them are just unnecessary and difficult to take seriously, but sometimes there is an advantage to it since this is already a bland universe.

As for the acting: Ian Somerhalder could have been effective as the villain if he provides a sense of psychosis, but just like everyone else he is there to look cool. The lack of convincing his nefarious intentions sucks out the fun whenever he is around. The real pleasure is when (possibly spoilers) some of the characters become surrogates of Brian Cox. Cox himself is mostly there to be strapped on a machine and phone in to a footage, but when Clarke and Hemsworth do the impre

OK, firstly this Movie needed to have a massive budget for what is was trying to be but Noel Clarke made it anyway on a shoe string. I'm glad that he did.

What we get is a great storyline, great acting, great action and a great ending. What more could you want from A Movie ?

I'll agree that a bigger budget could have given us a better visual experience and more known actors, but what we got entertained and that's what Movies are all about.

I loved this Movie. I think Clarke did a great job with what he had to work with. Someone is going to give this guy a budget one day and what we will get will be incredible, but until then he will continue to please us with what he has to work with. Well done Noel Clarke. You always try to be different and original. One day they will give you a break and see you for the Talent that you are.

Until then please keep The Movies Coming.

The Anomaly fmovies. First of all: This is not Matrix and it hasn't quite near the budget. But! that doesn't matter! It's a very well-done Sci-Fi-Movie with a really cool story. In the first part you're like what the hell is going on. I was really surprised how purely this movie is rated in this data base. So i read some Reviews from users who said it is about average and the main critic they have is poor acting and poor fights.

I can't agree. The fight-style is somewhat strange street-fighting, but absolutely OK. The actors are good. And the story is awesome. Yeah, there might be a time near the end of the movie when i thought OK now we could make a better step, but overall "The Anomaly" is pretty good. It's much like Matrix, but more atmosphere like in Equilibrium. Both movies are better than this one but slightly. You have to see that this is still a low-budget film and for that it's great! Don't expect perfection, but i absolutely enjoyed this Sci-Fi-Puzzle!

Low budget but a twisty story that kept me interested. Quite a few sci fi tropes here - hooker with a heart, hero without memory etc but some others that felt if not original, then at least welcome and not out of place. Acting is not as bad as some reviews suggest. Effects are pretty good for the budget - not intrusive and quite subtle in moments. The first 20 minutes or so are quite jarring but persevere and you'll be rewarded. Soundtrack is odd - but you get used to it and it oddly fits the mood of the movie. Fight scenes could be better - you don't really feel the impact despite the slowmo so they come across as a bit fake. That said - they could be worse. Matrix did it better though. Grab a beer or 2 and watch with a friend who is willing to enjoy a neat little sci-fi movie without being too much of a cynic.

This is my first review so I'll make this quick.

I had to review because I was so disappointed

Ideas 8. Interesting new take on Future Tech Decent Sci-Fi plot. However, although the story jumped around a bit, what was the Plane all about? Fight Scenes 2 (shocking) Was that supposed to be Martial Arts? It was somewhere between Crap Eastern moves and slightly advanced street fighting. Arrogance 9. Smug acting from the protagonists Nemesis. Overall Acting 4 (woeful) Some real bad acting from the supporting cast. Ego 10. Clarkes Baby, probably. I'm surprised he didn't sing the theme tune

Could Do Better.