Sensation

His X-Men/Tomorrow People superpowers are in Andrew Cooper’s DNA. Apparently, so is stupidity. When Cooper submits his DNA test to the government, he inadvertently alerts a super-secret agency to his existence. Supposedly, they want to train him, but we know what that really means in Martin Grof’s Sensation, which releases Friday on VOD.

Actually, Cooper only thinks it was the DNA test, but we know from the makes-no-sense prologue creepy Dr. Daniel Marinus was on to him from the start. Regardless, Cooper is whisked off to a Hogwarts from Hell to be trained to use his psychic powers. Something is really wrong about the place. They also claim to be holding his mother at an undisclosed location, for her own safety, of course. However, whenever he manages to reach her on the phone, she warns him to get the heck out.

Grof and co-screenwriter Magdalena Drahovska try to combine parts of Inception and parts of The X-Men, but only the worst parts. Frankly, this is the kind of film that looks like a major cast-member died during the production and had to be edited out as best as possible. As a result, none of the head-tripping spectacle makes any sense without a coherent sense of logic to underpin it all.

Ironically, Eugene Simon makes a pretty effective surrogate for viewers, because as Cooper, he mostly stands around say things like “none of this makes any sense.” No, it sure doesn’t. Alastair G. Cumming brings some slimy villainous flair to the film as Dr. Marinus, but the character’s connection to National Socialist concentration camp experiments adds an element of exploitative unsavoriness. As for the rest of the cast, they never really register playing stock characters we never really get to know.

Grof and co-cinematographer Jamie Burr craft some nice imagery, but there is no substance to give it meaning. The abruptness of the ending adds further suspicion the film was cobbled together on the editing floor after some disaster. If you are in the mood British science fiction involving latent super-powers, watch some vintage Tomorrow People episodes instead. Not recommended, Sensation releases Friday (12/31) on VOD.