A young boy witnesses the murder of his mother and years later he sets out to clean up the streets and find the culprit. He becomes a vigilante. Yes the premise is very similar to Batman. It sounded good so I have it a go when I saw it available on Netflix. I have to say this film was 90 minutes of excellence. A top notch story being told at a good pace. I was intrigued by the character Sean and Teresa added another dimension to the story. I don't think I've ever heard of any of the actors but the acting was of a high standard even during the highly intense fight scenes and arguments. The film was very atmospheric throughout as we follow Sean on his journey. The tension builds throughout the film and the ending is certainly memorable with a great twist executed to perfection. Highly recommend. 9/10.

Boy Wonder begins with young Sean (Jake Randazzo) and his mother chatting together on a bench. The film then abruptly changes pace and the next scene shows his mother Mary Donovan (Tracy Middendorf) being killed in front of young Sean's eyes as a result of a car jacking. The film then abruptly cuts to Sean being a teenager.This was a problem for me as I felt that all this happened far too quickly. There are snippets of their life together before she died, but with these snippets coming at various stages in the film, for me it did make it feel somewhat disjointed. I think a slightly longer introduction between Sean & Mary would have been better and certainly would have made the film flow a lot better.I found that Sean's transition from shy teenager to a kick ass vigilante type also came out of nowhere. His incredible fighting skills are also questionable - I realise he's fairly accomplished as a boxer, but where did he learn his other skills? It also stretches credibility for us to expect to believe that of all the languages in the world that he chooses to learn would be Chinese which is one of the most difficult languages to learn. I also found it hard to believe that police chief Bill Baldwin (Chuck Cooper) would allow Sean to have access to police computers for over 10 years and allow him to look at mugshots etc. Yes he lets him do it at first because he's a messed up kid following his mother's murder, but to allow him to look at mugshots for 10 years and allow him the possibility to access sensitive data. Come on..... It's just impossible to believe that this would happen. Boy Wonder seems to have a lot of loose threads, but seemingly with no-one there to tie them together. I've brought up some negatives to Boy Wonder, but it also has a lot of good points; for a start, it is compelling viewing and is never boring. It has a gritty, hard edge about it which will certainly hold your interest. The fight choreography is fairly good. I was also particularly impressed with the ending of the film and thought that it was really clever. It's thought provoking and will certainly make you 'think before you act'.Despite my reservations, I still enjoyed Boy Wonder and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of vigilante films. For me, I just felt the narrative could have been a bit more cohesive and parts of the plot are a bit ridiculous, but it's still an enjoyable film that is well worth a look.

The teenager Sean Donovan (Caleb Steinmeyer) is a brilliant but shy student that lives with his father Terry Donovan (Bill Sage) in Brooklyn. Sean has a trauma since he has witnessed the murder of his mother in a carjack nine years ago. Sean frequently goes to the precinct to see criminal photos expecting to identify the killer of his mother and he is an amateurish boxer. During the night, Sean secretly is a vigilante, seeking out brutal criminals based on the police files to eliminate them. The efficient police lieutenant Teresa Ames (Zulay Henao) has been just promoted after capturing the notorious gangster Larry Childs (James Russo) and transferred to work in the Homicide Department in the precinct where Sean uses to go. When Sean helps Teresa to change her flat tire, she befriends Sean and leans his traumatic story. But when she notes that Sean was searching in the computer of the police department the pimp that was murdered, she suspects that the troubled teenager might be the vigilante that is killing in New York City. The unknown "Wonder Boy" is a dramatic thriller with a complex and well developed story of revenge. The characters are perfectly developed and Caleb Steinmeyer and Zulay Henao have great performances. The awesome conclusion shocks and shows how dangerous it to judge based on suppositions. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Garoto Prodígio" ("Boy Prodigy")

We're not sure where we ended up. We wanted a simple, cotton candy Punisher-esque movie and ended up with a Donnie Darko Lite meets Lucky Number Sleven, except it wasn't funny at all and because the film was only 93 minutes long, the story and characters were a bit thin. Don't get us wrong. We enjoyed it. Revenge films may be indulgent and it doesn't take much to make them passably satisfying (like most horror films), and Boy Wonder has some strong moments. Still, it wouldn't have hurt to take out a few more criminals along the way. Well, it wouldn't have hurt us anyway. The criminals, yes. But that's the point.The characters trended towards the typical clichés in these types of movies. Doting mother brutally slaughtered. Young sexy detective with a tough exterior and a heart of gold (that can, amazingly, drink a dude twice her size under the table). A older, world-weary detective that turns a blind eye to vigilante justice. A bumbling cop partner. Etc. That's common in a run-of-the-mill thriller, so we expected that, but we always keep our hopes up that one of these types of movies will surprise us with fantastic characters like the relentless Creasy in Man on Fire or the black hearted but penitent Will Munny in Unforgiven.