2142. Anon (2018)

Starring: Clive Owen, Amanda Seyfried, Jonathan Potts

DIrector: Andrew Niccol

Running Time: 100 mins

Anon is an American film about a future where privacy and crime have been removed, a detective finds a woman whose mysterious abilities pose a threat to the entire society.

Although it generally looks the part, I have to say that Anon thoroughly bored me from start to finish. Despite what initially seems like a bold take on the sci-fi genre, the film is actually just a grey, lifeless affair that attempts to use fancy effects to breathe life into what is otherwise an incredibly stale story, complete with dull dialogue and a real lack of ingenuity throughout.

All in all, I recommend that you stay away from this movie, and one of the major reasons for that is the fact that Anon is nothing more than a copy of a collection of better sci-fi movies. It attempts (and fails) to recreate the ominous atmosphere of Blade Runner, it misses the mark on echoing the fiercely intriguing thrills of Minority Report, and it doesn’t even really manage to excite you with its future tech in the way that the likes of In Time do.

In that, you end up watching Anon not only somewhat disappointed by a lack of originality in a genre with literally infinite possibilities, but also frustrated in the knowledge that everything about it can be, and has been, done better, with this film totally paling in comparison to a collection of far superior entries in the genre.

Secondly, when it comes to the way the film presents its own vision, it’s just not that interesting. Yes, the effects are cool, but it’s really hard to get interested in the society that the film is trying to portray simply because the screenplay is so poorly-written, and the performances feel rather phoned in.

Above all, the dialogue in this film is appalling, with the actors unconvincingly spewing random sci-fi jargon throughout that’s not only not interesting, but fairly laughable to listen to, as they ramble on through overly complicated conversations about god knows what, all the while leaving you none the wiser to what’s really going on.

What’s more is that the screenplay just isn’t unpredictable enough. The main mystery of the film appears to be solved from the very first scene, and although things eventually seem to pan out in another direction, even that twist is fairly forseeable, and definitely not at all earned over the course of the film.

So, there’s absolutely no intrigue to be had with Anon, leaving only its visuals to save the day. Now, there’s no doubt that the film looks the part from the start, with a cool and slick silver vibe pervading throughout, and in tandem with some simplistic yet striking visuals to portray the technology of the future, it does at least look pretty good.

However, even the visuals aren’t that exceptional, and the cool silver look seems to descend into a fairly dull grey by the end of the film, meaning that there really is nothing left to keep you engrossed come the film’s tedious conclusion, and that’s why I’m giving Anon a 5.5 overall.