Also checked out Hardcore Henry, the new first-person perspective action flick co-starring weirdo Sharlto Copely doing an admirable insane job in an insane movie. Basic premise: Henry wakes up with no memory and no voice… nor all of his arms and legs. The doctors are rebuilding him after something happened and soon he goes on a rampage across Moscow (for some reason), fighting the evil forces of a megalomaniacal German super villain (with an airship and an army of goons).
This is a video game movie. And I’m not say that derogatorily like a lot of people do about big dumb action flicks. It’s very evident that this was written by people who have played a ton of first-person shooters. There’s moments of chaos where the hero has to drop his silenced pistol and switch weapons to the shotgun or the SMG or lob a grenade. There’s the vehicle section, the sniper section, the escort mission, etc. Between action set pieces, our hero gets a new mission via a quick voice mail and a dot on a map showing him where to go next.
And it’s all in chaotic first person. This camera work is apparently making some people sick but I was ok with it (I don’t get motion sick very often, if at all). That said, the movie has some clear and intended editing and doesn’t flow as a first person “found footage” type movie as I expected it to be. But that’s ok if the rest is good and, unfortunately, it’s a very mixed bag. There are a number of pretty great action sequences and then there are also some unwatchable shakey-cam nightmares where you have no idea what in hell is supposed to be going on. I gather they filmed this using actual Go-Pro camera on a head-rig but there’s still better ways of faking first-person that are coherent (as evident by the good scenes in the film).
Overall, there were enough cool action bits, funny moments, and gloves-off insane story points that I rather kind of like the movie. I wish it had been more cohesive and I actually wish it had gone more for broke with its more bizarro sci-fi concepts (because, hey, the bad guy has psychic powers and an army of robot soldiers… and an air ship). Sharlto Copely is pretty great playing a variety of roles (he seems to keep dying and reappearing – it was better before they explained it but it was still fun in its own way when they did).
If you’re looking for an intelligent and inventive storyline with real characters and dialog, this movie ain’t it. It’s all about propulsive and batty action scenes that usually work, but sometimes are aggravating. You may or may not get sick watching it. That said, if you watch the trailer and think it looks dumb, this movie ain’t going to convince you otherwise. Folks who think it looks wicked cool will likely come away pleased.
Score: 81