Anon (2018)

Well, i like sci-fi. This was boring. A big snoozer. a 4 out of 10.

Anon is a noirish sci-fi thriller set in the near future where the human mind records everything through its eyes. It is a society with no privacy but what if the memories can be manipulated?

Sal Frieland (Clive Owen) is a detective who solves crimes by reviewing people's memories that exist in some kind of matrix where the memories are placed and can be accessed.

When an anonymous hacker is suspected of killing some people, Sal figures it is a mysterious woman (Amanda Seyfried) who does not exist in their records as she is off the grid and who can alter the memory files.

Director Andrew Niccol pursues his interest in a futuristic society as he did in Gattaca. The film slows down when Sal and the mysterious woman hook up. Yet Sal finds himself in danger and also finds his own memories are hacked. However there is an air of predictability in the mystery aspects of the film.

Classy, interesting movie that is ridiculously underrated.

The set-up is intriguing and the conflict is incredibly well done, but the pay-off is such a let-down. Has some original ideas that are mostly explored early on in the second half of Anon despite its similarity to a couple of Black Mirror episodes (chiefly The Entire History of You). Not something I'll re-visit, but better than I had expected.

Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.