(Note: The following
is a full review of one of the films that I had previously covered in my ‘2016
SXSW Film Festival Recap’ post. For a quick refresher on what I said in that
post, click Here. But for now, here’s my full review of the first-person action
film, Hardcore Henry.)
Hardcore Henry is
a particularly unique entry into the action genre. The brainchild of director
Ilya Naishuller, the frontman of Russian indie rock group Biting Elbows, and inspired
by the band’s music videos for their songs ‘The Stampede’ and ‘Bad
Mother******’, both of which were shot in a similar manner, Hardcore Henry is a 100% first-person
action film. All of the action in this film is witnessed, and in this case
mostly committed, from the perspective of the titular Henry, effectively
placing the audience in the middle of it all. In other words, you know all of
those first-person shooter games like Call
of Duty and Battlefield? Well
this is like playing those games… while on crack. Yes, Hardcore Henry is very much a film that lives up to its ‘Hardcore’
title with its balls-to-the-wall action and its extremely hyperactive pacing.
However, I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is a good thing. I mean, sure, I
will give the filmmakers credit for at least sticking to their guns and
delivering us a no-holds barred action extravaganza. And again, at the very
least this film can at least lay claim to the fact that it’s a pretty darn
original entry in the action genre in terms of its overall style. However, this
ends up being one of the most extreme cases of style over substance as the
story and characters are basically just an afterthought in favor of endless
action. Sure the action may be impressive for a film shot in this style but it
really doesn’t matter if everything else is woefully underdeveloped.
As the film begins, the audience is placed into the
perspective of Henry, a man who wakes up in a laboratory being given cybernetic
limbs by his scientist wife Estelle (Haley Bennett). Estelle tells Henry that
he has recently been in an accident, hence the loss of his limbs, and that he
also has amnesia. However, before Estelle and the other scientists can install
a speech module for Henry, they are suddenly attacked by mercenaries led by the
mysterious telekinetic Akan (Danila Kozlovsky). Henry and Estelle escape from
the airship that the laboratory is located in but when they land back on Earth
in the middle of Moscow, more of Akan’s mercenaries come and abduct Estelle.
Henry is soon rescued by a mysterious man named Jimmy (Sharlto Copley), who
offers to help him take on Akan and his army in order to save Estelle. The only
problem? Henry’s battery is running low on energy and at best he’s only got
enough energy to last for about 20-30 minutes. This results in Henry embarking
on a journey throughout Moscow as he fights through dozens of bad guys, with
the help of Jimmy and a few other people as well, in order to not only ‘stay
alive’ but to also rescue Estelle and to stop Akan once and for all before he
can create a whole army of soldiers who are just like Henry and unleash them
upon the world.
As I said before, this film does at least deserve credit for
trying something new in the action genre. I mean, I can’t really think of any
other action film that has been done from a first-person perspective. With that
in mind, this film does go all the way with it and in that regard, it very much
succeeds in making you feel like you’re Henry and you’re fighting all of these
bad guys like a total badass. Not only that, but the film definitely does have some
really impressive and cool action sequences, like a fight scene near the end of
the film in which Henry fights a whole slew of henchmen that’s set perfectly to
Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. But even with all of that said, at the end of the
day this style may prove to get old for some people after a while. That’s because
the film does sort of stay on the same note throughout its runtime to the point
where it actually gets rather repetitive at times. That and it should be noted
that the film’s first-person style, which is ‘sort of’ similar to the
found-footage style seen in films like Cloverfield
and Chronicle (though to be perfectly
clear, this is NOT a ‘found-footage’ film), could be very nauseating to watch
for some viewers. I’m not someone who’s easily prone to nausea but I will admit
that when I saw it at SXSW, I had to walk out of the theater after it was done because
it was so intense. This film, and subsequently the action, goes by so fast that
it actually kind of requires a second viewing of it just to notice everything
that happens in it. The only question, though, is whether or not you’d care to
watch it again.
Because where this film may shine in regards to its action,
it severely lacks in terms of its plot and characters. To put it simply, this
is easily one of the most mindless action films that I’ve ever seen. Because
the action is so frenetic, we as an audience are never given much time to take
a breather because this film keeps on going and going like the Energizer Bunny…
on crack. And as a result, most of the characters are incredibly
underdeveloped. For one thing, the main villain Akan is apparently a Jedi
because of his telekinetic powers. How did he gain these powers? It’s never
explained… well, at least not in the film. There’s a prequel comic focused on
Akan, which covers his backstory, that was given out for free when I saw the
film at SXSW… but I haven’t read it yet and to be frank, that stuff should’ve
just been in the film. However, I will at least give Danila Kozlovsky credit
because he actually does make Akan a pretty fiendish and even rather
charismatic villain despite having jack to work with. Ultimately though, the
real star of the show is Sharlto Copley as Jimmy, who to be perfectly frank is
the only major character in this film who gets any shred of character development…
and even then, his main role in the film is mostly just telling Henry where to
go. Without giving too much away, a recurring plot-point in the film is that
Jimmy is continuously killed but yet somehow keeps coming back albeit with
different personalities each time, from a coked-up sex addict to a
‘peace-loving’ motorcycle riding hippie to my personal favorite, a World War II
admiral who looks and sounds like he came straight out of Inglourious Basterds (“Jolly Good!”).
Fans of the action genre will probably get a kick out of
this film and rightfully so as it does deliver a pretty distinctively original
action style that could potentially be used in the future by other filmmakers
if they ever decide to use it. But if they ever do, hopefully those filmmakers come
up with a much stronger story to go along with it because this film doesn’t do
that at all. The film’s non-stop nature means that there’s little-to-no-time
for any sort of breather and as a result, none of the characters, aside from
Sharlto Copley’s Jimmy, are ever fleshed out. We as an audience are basically
just stepping into the shoes of a blank slate. And as impressive as the action
may be at times, the fact that it’s all-shot in first person will be nauseating
for some people and it may even eventually tire them out because it does get
rather repetitive after a while. Again, I will give the film credit for being
unapologetically, for lack of a better term, ‘hardcore’ and all but it’s so
‘hardcore’ that it becomes quite erratic at times. Now I’ve seen arguments that
this film doesn’t really need a deep story due to its action and overall sense
of adrenaline. But that same argument was made towards Mad Max Fury Road and after seeing this film, I will never be as
critical towards Fury Road in regards
to its writing ever again because at least that film had a plot and characters
that were actually worth a damn. This is just action and violence for the sake
of action and violence.
Rating: 2.5/5
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