Review: Hardcore Henry

Henry is brought back to life by his wife (Haley Bennett) and fitted with cyborg parts, whilst wiping his memory. When the lab he wakes up in is under attack by a telekinetic villain, Henry escapes but pursued by nondescript Russian goons. Sharlto Copley turns up from time to time as Jimmy, who appears to be helping Henry evade his would-be killers, but has a habit of getting himself killed in the process. Several times. Yep, this one’s weird.

Although it’s not as headache-inducing and irritating as I expected, this 2015 first-person sci-fi flick from debut writer-director Ilya Naishuller (a musician and music video director, to little surprise) outstays its welcome fairly quickly. Shot in first-person fashion by cinematographers Pasha Kapinos, Vsevolod Kaptur & Feodor Lyass, it’s almost like a drug-addled “RoboCop” with a touch of “Chappie”, but shot entirely from the title character’s point-of-view. It didn’t give me a headache, but it’s also neither necessary nor an especially advantageous style. Basically, we’ve got a mute camera for a protagonist, which isn’t much to latch onto. I guess like in a first-person shooter game the audience/player is basically meant to be the protagonist, but that works better in something more interactive like a game.

It might work for some of you, but I must say I found it little more enjoyable than watching someone else play a computer game. The best I can say is that it does its thing a bit better than a lot of other first person shooter-inspired films, but that’s faint praise. I might’ve responded more favourably if it had the energy, humour, and imagination of say the “Crank” films, but no dice. As is, I enjoyed one gory bit where a gunshot alleviates someone of the burden of having a brain and half of their face. That was nice, wish there was more of that. I also wish there was more plot, as the film is extremely vague on the details, which really doesn’t help. The film completely up an loses its mind in the final 20-30 minutes, so good luck to anyone who can follow it.

A vacant protagonist and a barely explained plot do not a great film maketh, though I recognise the difficulty level in GoPro-lensed first-person action stunt work. Much credit in particular, to the stunt team of people who play the title character (including the director himself at one point, apparently). The performances are overall pretty inconsistent, with star Sharlto Copley being hammy as hell, but compared to the rest here…at least he’s lively and seems like he may have acted before (which of course he has). Poor Haley Bennett looks strangely waxy and inhuman here and acts accordingly, certainly not her finest hour. Total waste of Tim Roth, whose miniscule performance is practically subliminal (Seriously, there’s gotta be a story behind this. He’s got about 20 seconds of screen time).

It’s weird enough that someone will dig it, especially gamers and GoPro fanatics, but I don’t much respond to this kind of thing. It plays like a student film or a director showing off all of his tricks. I prefer story and character above all else, anything beyond that is a bonus. Also not helping matters is a cast mostly comprised of barely English-speaking actors. Sharlto Copley looks to be having fun, but I got tired of it a little less than halfway through, despite it always being on the move.

Rating: C-