With an unknown cast and a equally obscure first-time film writer/director Josh Trank (his other known work being T.V series The Kill Point), we are not sure of what to expect, but we do know we`re not expecting big budget kind of production.
With almost no expectation comes a clean slate of mind. But be pre-warned, the story evolves and is told through said protagonist Andrew Detmer`s (Dane DeHaan) new video cam, so expect lots of `lost/found-footage` kind of shaky camera works.
We have to admit we are the worst fans of this kind of film-making – which almost guarantees us a f***ing headache the movie-after – but if you can bear with it for the first quarter, the shaky screen becomes more stable as the title character becomes more powerful, smart.
The plot is pretty simple, geek/loser kid Andrew and fellow high-school mates Alex (Matt Garetty) Michael (Steve Montgomery) discover and explore a meteor crash site and start developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.
Unlike most comic superheroes who are upright beings out to save the world, our Andrew is an antsy teen who is tormented by a violent father and a bunch of school bullies. Suddenly armed with abilities to fight back, it`s a matter of time before his pent up frustrations and raging hormones push him to abuse his new found power and risk him crossing over to the dark side. Think Magneto in high school.
Acting-wise from the trio is convincing enough – think of them as high-school kids goofing around in home-made videos, which will cut them quite a bit of slack. Interestingly, it`s also their rawness and non-pretence that add to the allure of the film.
The effects are surprisingly good, even when compared to bigger productions.
There are a few ways we`ll like to describe this film; indie with alternative superheroes; T.V`s Heroes meets Glee; Megamind meets The Blair Witch Project meets X-Menâ€