Ex-soldier Ryan (Noel Clarke) wakes up in the back of a van, alongside a kidnapped boy. Ryan helps him escape but when he finds a mask in his pocket he comes to a horrifying realisation….
However, after only nine minutes and forty seven seconds of consciousness he has a complete blackout, time is of the essence as he finds himself trying to work out how and why he got there. What does this have to do with Ryan’s past as a patient at the experimental Medical Unit? Ryan has a lot of questions, and very little time to find any answers and save the world from a fate worse than death.
Directed and starring BAFTA rising star winner Noel Clarke (Star Trek Into The Darkness, Adulthood), this sci-fi thriller is just a little different to what you might expect from Clarke. Even more so when during filming every little bit of the storyline was kept hush hush. If you are lucky enough to follow Clarke on Twitter, he would occasionally hint at scenes they were filming but he was clever enough not to go too far to keep everyone’s intrigue at a high.
So back to the storyline, with each scene we experience Ryan, coming round from blackout after blackout trying to figure out exactly who he is, where he is and what situation he needs to get himself out of next. He wasn’t the only one baffled; this also makes it extremely confusing for the audience, and however I am pretty sure this was intentional to keep us all fully engaged so we would keep on watching. It certainly had the desired effect. Once it became clear that father and son team Dr. Langham (Brian Cox) and Harkin Langham (Ian Somerhalder) had implanted a device within Ryan’s head in order for Dr. Langham to be mentally transferred into his body for what basically is an experiment to take complete control of the human race, in other words it’s another of those films where the evil genius has a god like complex, everything seemed to fall into place. Well that would be apart from the major importance of the reasoning of the kidnapping of the boy. This part of the story could have had a bit more of a backbone.
Laced with the understated bit of humour throughout and the great scenes of nudity from Noel Clarke, I am sure this will be a bit of a hit with the female audience for that reason alone. What is a great pleasure to see however is that Clarke has embraced his inner ninja? We witness many fight scenes, reduced to slow motion for greater affect, to feel every hit and to observe Clarke as a new British action/Ninja hero.
Bringing in a cast, apart from Clarke, of Ian Somarholder who you will recognise from the likes of The Vampire Diaries and Lost (and a massive hit with the ladies), Brian Cox (The Bourne Ultimatum, Rise of The Planet Of the Apes) and Alexis Knapp (Pitch Perfect, Project X) may put a few bums on seats, apart from that Somarholder and Cox play the baddy perfectly even if a little over the top, well we can’t just single out those to for OTT performances, the whole cast is guilty with the over acting but it just seems to work for this storyline.
Overall The Anomoly is interesting, slightly confusing in parts with a storyline that was just a tad weak but one thing is for certain, you’ll be engrossed and intrigued throughout.
THE ANOMALY IS OUT IN UK CINEMA’S FROM 4TH JULY.