iBoy Netflix Movie Review

iBoy (2017)

Watch iBoy on Netflix
Written by: Joe Barton (screenplay, writer), Kevin Brooks (based on the novel by), Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood    
Directed by: Adam Randall
Starring: Maisie Williams , Rory Kinnear , Miranda Richardson, Bill Milner
Rated:TV-MA

Plot
Tom wakes from a coma after an accident to discover that fragments of his smart phone are in embedded in his head and he now has super powers.

Verdict
If you can get over the silly premise that cell phone fragments grant super powers, it's not a bad super hero movie. Though that premise is not easy to overcome and really hurts this movie. A radioactive spider and spidey sense is easier to buy. While the story has it's moments, it will feel like you've seen it before.
It depends.

Review
Putting an "i" in front of any noun to imply it's digital is annoying. It's reason enough to avoid this movie. If that's not reason enough, Tom (Bill Milner) is in essence an internet router. He can see digital data spilling into the world, and he can control it. We can't see it because we don't have a fragment of a cell phone lodged into our brains. This is an utterly ridiculous premise, and super hero movies have already given us many.

This is standard teen fantasy wish fulfillment. Tom's an unpopular kid that gets bullied. A freak accident gives him power and confidence. He can finally fight the bullies and bolsters his confidence enough to talk to Lucy (Maisie Williams). While this has it's moments, it's a predictable story. It avoids taking the story in an interesting direction such as Tom becoming corrupt on his own power.
It does fully embrace the typical trope of the neighborhood hating the hero because the bad guys punish the neighborhood since the hero tried to clean it up. Even that doesn't go very far, and Tom sure has a tendency to develop a new power to save himself whenever the plot demands it.

With half an hour left the movie decides everything needs to wrap up and the big bad guy finds Tom effortlessly. The conclusion does get a bit melodramatic, dragging out the ending as we know Tom could exert any number of powers we've seen, but he waits. He also leaves Lucy behind after making such a big deal of his failure to protect her earlier.

This is basically a graphic novel aimed at teens. It's got all the hallmarks of teen empowerment and overcoming obstacles while getting the girl. It's a super hero story, but one that's derivative.