Directed by Daniel Benmayor, this Spanish mashup of Inception, Scanners, The Fury and The Matrix follows 18-year-old Ian (Carlos Scholz), whose parents were Perceivers: a species of cold war spy chemically engineered to be able to project illusions with their minds. Most were killed off in a cull known as the Disinfection, which makes Ian, who has inherited his parents’ powers, especially valuable. Strolling into a bank brandishing a scrap of paper, he can wordlessly persuade the teller that it is a cheque ready to be cashed. Pointing his finger, he makes an adversary fall to the ground from a nonexistent bullet wound.
No wonder sinister forces are out to exploit the lad. Swooping to his rescue is Adriana (Lela Loren), an operative from the Agency who warns him about the Awareness, a sinister group which – conspiracy theory ahoy! – has every politician in its pocket. But with her portentous mumblings about the coming of the Mule (who?) and the Third Power (huh?), it’s unclear whether she can be trusted any more than the high-kicking Emma Peel-style secret agent (María Pedraza) who busts Ian out of the Agency’s lair, or the fellow Perceiver (Óscar Jaenada) who stalks amusement arcades in Godard-style tinted specs.
Derivative it may be but Awareness moves along at a clip, layering double-crosses on top of alternate realities and implanted memories so that it hardly matters – at least until the nagging absence of any emotional charge starts to make the gunplay rather wearing. There’s a sliver of heartache, though, in Ian’s quest to find his long-lost mother, which leads him into the recesses of his own and other people’s minds. And there are some neat touches amid the mayhem, such as the teenager who is so absorbed in his first-person shooter game that he is oblivious to the real-life skirmish behind him.
• Awareness is released on 11 October on Prime Video.
