Becoming – Movie Review (4/5)

BECOMING is a new sci-fi horror-thriller starring Toby Kebbell. It reminded me of a few other awesome horror stories while still being unique. The cast and pace really make this work. Read more in our full Becoming review here!

Becoming is a sci-fi horror-thriller with a damn scary plot. I have to be honest and say that the story did remind me of something I had seen before. However, the references that came to mind are absolutely awesome – more on them later in this review.

Also, while this movie reminded me of others, it still managed to deliver something new. Especially the cast of Becoming manages to give some wonderful performances that breathe life into this story.

I’ll be talking about Toby Kebbell in this review since he plays the key character. However, his co-star, Penelope Mitchell (Hellboy and Look Away), is also really good in this. They both deliver performances that make this movie very much worth watching.

Continue reading our Becoming review below.

The plot of Becoming

In Becoming, Toby Kebbell plays a man who is slowly taken over by an entity of sorts. I’ve already mentioned that the plot of Becoming reminded me of a few other things, so let’s get into them.

The first thing it reminded me of was the HBO series The Outsider which is an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. However, that plot features an entity actually cloning someone. Both the memories and visual appearance of a person is copied while the “original” go on living.

Recommended reading: Check out our review of the HBO series The Outsider here >

Becoming has the entity creep in and slowly take over a person. That means you lose the original as this replacement takes over the person. Alex (Toby Kebbell) just disappears as this other thing takes over. And you will know that it’s happened because the replacement is a real creep.

Due to this element of the story, it reminded me more of the 1998 movie Fallen starring Denzel Washington. If you’ve watched that then The Rolling Stones song “Time Is On My Side” is probably etched into your mind. And if you haven’t watched it then I highly recommend it. In fact, I think I need to watch it again soon!

Toby Kebbell is a stellar leading man

I’ve been a fan of Toby Kebbell for years. I cannot remember a single movie or TV series where he didn’t give excellent performances. He is just always memorable.

First, I should mention the latest production he’s in which is the Apple TV+ series Servant. Toby Kebbell portrays one of the lead characters in this series which is produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It also has a story that feels very Shyamalan at times, despite him not actually writing or directing it.

You might like: Our review of the Apple TV Plus series Servant here >

However, my appreciation for Toby Kebbell goes back many years. From season 1 of Black Mirror where he starred in the “The Entire History of You” episode. Also, Kong: Skull Island in which he portrays both the characters Jack Chapman and Kong himself.

In fact, Toby Kebbell has played a lot of non-human characters. In that sense, his career reminds me a bit of Andy Serkis who most will know as Gollum from Lord of the Rings or Caesar from the latest Planet of the Apes trilogy. Toby Kebbell was in a few of those as well since he played the “Koba” character.

However, despite his ability to portray animals, Toby Kebbell is very much leading man material and I am really happy to see him star in Becoming. Though if you know that he has portrayed both Kong and Koba in past movies, you might recognize some of those savage moves he used when portraying an ape.

Up next, we’ll see Toby Kebbell in the sci-fi action movie Bloodshot starring Vin Diesel.

A fascinating and solid movie by Omar Naim

Omar Naim is both the screenwriter and director of Becoming. You might not know this director by name but he does have a few genre movies on his resume. He also wrote and directed The Final Cut from 2004. This movie was a sci-fi thriller starring Robin Williams and it’s also worth checking out.

Becoming and The Final Cut are the only two screenplays by Omar Naim. However, he has directed a few more movies including the fantasy mystery movie Dead Awake from 2010. That one wasn’t great.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if you know anything about Omar Naim. You just need to know that Becoming has a strong and fascinating plot and a strong production. If you like sci-fi, horror and thriller movies, then this one manages to deliver a little bit of everything.

Becoming will be available in select theaters and Video-On-Demand on March 6, 2020.

Details

Director: Omar Naim
Screenwriter: Omar Naim
Stars: Toby Kebbell, Penelope Mitchell, Jason Patric, Jeff Daniel Philips, Stephen Rider, Lew Temple, Melissa Bolona, Beth Broderick