The new trailer for the sci-fi action-thriller The Anomaly has been released. The upcoming movie is about a former soldier who wakes up in the back of a van and has less than 10 minutes to figure out both how and why he got there. You can pre-order this now if you can’t make the movie which hits theaters Friday.
The futuristic film was both directed by and stars Noel Clarke, known for his role as Mickey Smith in Doctor Who. However, in The Anomaly Noel plays Ryan, the ex-soldier who wakes up in the back of a van beside a young boy who is being held prisoner. Unfortunately, Ryan has no recollection of how he wound up in the van and what he is doing there.
As Ryan struggles to control his mind and body (which is being repeatedly hijacked by another person through cutting-edge biotechnology), he frees the prisoner and begins trying to piece together what happened prior to him waking up in the van. Unfortunately, with the hijacking of his body and mind, Ryan only has exactly 9 minutes and 47 seconds to figure everything out.
Alongside Noel Clarke, the film also stars Alexis Knapp (known for her role as Stacie Conrad in the hit movie franchise Pitch Perfect) as Dana, a mysterious woman who winds up trying to help Ryan establish who he is. Other notable names in The Anomaly include Ian Somerhalder of Vampire Diaries, Brian Cox of X2: X-Men United and Luke Hemsworth, older brother of Chris and Liam Hemsworth.
The trailer begins by establishing the fact the 9 minutes and 47 seconds is an awfully short amount of time when it comes to trying to unravel some sort of evil experiment. It then goes on to show Ryan, as he enters a world as a whole new person after the short time interval and encounters numerous characters who give him hints of the bigger plot that is going on. The trailer also shows a glimpse of Brian Cox as Dr. Langham, presumably the master mind behind this whole twisted experiment, being confronted for his manipulation and control over Ryan – and potentially “everyone’s” mind and body.
The trailer reminded me a lot of the 2011 movie Source Code, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal. Source Code was actually a really interesting movie, with just the right amount of action and mind-bending plot lines. However, from watching just the trailer, The Anomaly seems to give off a cheap knock-off feel. Unfortunately, the limited reviews (15 critics at this point) on Rotten Tomatoes seem to agree, awarding the movie with a meager 37% rating. In comparison to the impressive 92% that Source Code earned, I don’t think The Anomaly will be able to pull off the similar plot-line in a captivating way.
Our friends at Anchor Bay will have two blu-ray copies of the movie for you readers so come back on Tuesday and we’ll have it posted how you can get your
From reading the reviews, it seems that Noel should have strayed away from being both the director and lead actor, as he apparently never “shuns an opportunity to show off body but displays little of the intelligence or flair needed to pull of [this] film…” (Jason Best, Movie Talk).
I will admit the trailer doesn’t look too bad. Nonetheless, as I mentioned, it does have a knock-off feel to it and now that I have read a few reviews of it I don’t think I will check this one out. Instead, I will probably just watch Source Code again and recommend that others do the same (especially if you haven’t seen it yet).
If you want to give The Anomaly a shot and prove me wrong, you can catch it in theatres on September 25, 2015. Or wait for its release On-Demand, DVD and Blu-ray on October 6, 2015.
The Anomaly Trailer
The Anomaly Clip Where Are You