'Hardcore Henry'
Movie Rating:
3
You’ve gotta give the folks behind ‘Hardcore Henry’ this much: They certainly didn’t hold anything back. The first action movie shot exclusively in a first-person p.o.v. is a relentless assault on the senses that leaps from one action scene to the next, slowing down only to tell some filthy jokes or indulge in a few extra effects sequences that don’t involve ultraviolence.
As a technical accomplishment, the film is impressive and a sight that every action cinema-lover should behold just to acknowledge that somehow it happened. However, it’s also a little too much and a little too dumb. In their attempt to create the cinematic equivalent of a First Person Shooter videogame, the filmmakers left out simple pleasures like compelling characters, credible dialogue, or satisfying storytelling. It’s a series of ridiculous climaxes without any nourishing downtime. Although admirable in intent, it’s not always as fun in execution as it thinks it is.
The camera stars as the titular Henry. He awakens in a science fiction laboratory where his mechanically enhanced body is now ready to kick butt in the field. The first person he sees (Haley Bennett) introduces herself as his wife and whispers a few sweet nothings before the base is infiltrated by a telepathic psycho villain (Danila Kozlovsky) who blows everything up. Suddenly, Henry (or us, I guess) finds himself racing through the streets of Moscow pursued by an army of generic goons. He kills a bunch of them and engages in a little parkour before meeting Sharlto Copley’s mysterious helper, who always arrives at the perfect time to give Henry the information he needs to get to the next action sequence. From there, it’s a series of chases, shoot-outs, strippers and semi-surprises until Henry finally fights Kozlovsky in a final boss battle made real on the big screen.
In a weird way, ‘Hardcore Henry’ feels like the most accurate cinematic videogame adaptation ever made, even though it isn’t actually based on a real videogame. It’s essentially an FPS in live action, with a wordless protagonist encountering a variety of colorful characters (most of whom are played by Copley) who give him weapons, tech upgrades and supporting fire before sending the hero onto the next action scene. No fuss, no muss, and certainly no subtext to be found anywhere. Fair enough. First time director Ilya Naishuller (whose music video “Bad Motherfucker” went viral and led directly to this feature) clearly enjoys the woozy visuals and relentless action style of games and delights in applying those conventions to film (which is where videogame designers took most of the devices from in the first place). As a work of pure spectacle, the guy delivers the goods.
Almost every conceivable type of action sequence pops up in ‘Hardcore Henry’ at one point or another. Scruffy fist fights, brain-blasting shoot-outs, high speed car chases, silly psychic battles, slo-mo super-powered impalement… name a form of big screen violence and it’s here. Seeing the sequences unfold in p.o.v. is immersive and viscerally stunning. It boggles the mind to think about how some of these scenes were accomplished, and tickles the eyes just to watch them unfold.
The movie only has one speed and that’s full throttle. It’s just one big stunt after another, and somehow Naishuller constantly finds ways to top himself. The tone is cartoony and willfully ridiculous, so none of the blood spilled ever stings. It’s designed to make you giggle and turn to the person sitting next to you to share a gasping glance of disbelief.
Unfortunately, that pounding sense of spectacle is all Naishuller seems to care about, for better or worse. On the plus side, there’s never been a movie so packed with jaw-drop action. On the downside, there’s rarely been a movie less interested in characters and storytelling. Everyone in the movie is little more than a cartoon with a handful of swears and dick jokes to spit out. There’s no one to really care about or empathize with beyond the protagonist that viewers can’t help but identify with since they’re stuck in his head. That makes the movie feel a bit tedious after the 15th consecutive crazy bit of action.
The movie can only be enjoyed for its action. Everything else must be tolerated. Sure, it’s amusing to see Sharlto Copley play so many weird characters, but it would be better to see an actor of his talent play one memorable character. The rest of the cast are either stuntmen or performers whose acting style recalls a 2×4 plank of wood with a smiley face drawn on it. (Danila Kozlovsky is particularly rough, so don’t expect to ever find the villain intimidating.) After a while, even as a fan of action and spectacle, I got exhausted and started counting down to the inevitable explosive climax.
While ‘Hardcore Henry’ is an amazing showcase of style-over-substance, it’s ultimately just a little too over-the-top to satisfy beyond a fast food level. The movie will likely please the gamer crowd since it delivers the raunch and spectacle they want. It’s dumb and reductive, often even rather repulsive. However, it’s also a hard-R version of a Road Runner cartoon, so it’s easy to turn off the critical side of the brain, laugh ironically at all the ugly excess, and appreciate the pure sense of spectacle.
‘Hardcore Henry’ does too much too right on a purely technical level to dismiss, but also disappoints too deeply on every other level to champion beyond its pretty surface. Certainly, the movie demands to be seen by anyone who enjoys action and visual innovation because it succeeds extraordinarily well in that regard. However, I’d imagine that ‘Hardcore Henry’ will be little more than a footnote in film history once a p.o.v. action movie with even a mild interest in storytelling comes along. There’s no denying that Ilya Naishuller is a director with remarkable talent and promise, but hopefully next time he’ll get a script to work with rather than merely a loose outline of cool action scenes duct-taped to a case of Red Bull.
NJScorpio
It sounds like they missed an opportunity to film this in 3D…for playback over one of the many new VR devices coming out.
Phil
Honestly, I think it would be too much for the eyeballs if this were in 3D. I’m not even someone who gets motion sickness at movies, but that might be enough to do it.
Josh Zyber
There are a bunch of FPS videogames in 3D. The two things work pretty well together.
NJScorpio
I think that the biggest strain with 3D movies is cutting from shot to shot, where you have to adjust your focus and mentally adjust to the new angle. If the movie is all the same point of view the whole time, it might be less likely to make someone motion sick.
Csm101
I know who Negan killed….
I kind of want to see this, but I think blu will be the way to go.
Josh Zyber
If you’re basing this on what happened in the comics, the show has diverged from the comics numerous times. It was supposed to be Abraham who got killed by the arrow on the train tracks, not Denise.
Csm101
??? I was just making a joke on the first person movie vs the first person batbashing. It seemed appropriate.
Josh Zyber
Sorry, I read comments from an admin facility, and I didn’t notice that you posted this to the Hardcore Henry review as a joke. I thought you said it in the Walking Dead thread. My mistake! 🙂
Deaditelord
I’m on the fence about seeing this in a theater. Sometimes dumb can be a lot of fun, but it seems like the 1st person viewpoint would get really annoying, really fast.
Bolo
I’ll give this a shot. It looks like it could be a fun rollercoaster type movie experience.
Mario Menchaca
I’m interested in knowing how much motion sickness this movie can cause. I get motion sick very easily (even in mild rollercoasters and in cars when I’m not driving), and even though I’m very interested in watching this just for the “novelty”, I’m afraid I would end up throwing up in the theater, and not because of the bad quality of the movie.
Phil
I’m curious about that myself. I was fine, but I’ve never had motion sickness issues with movies. However, I’d imagine this’d be rough for anyone who does.
Julian
That’s Haley Bennett in the banner picture, right? Doesn’t she look a lot like Jennifer Lawrence here?
(Bennett was excellent in Joe Dante’s ‘The Hole 3D’, by the way)
Phil
Oh that’s where I recognized her from! I couldn’t place her face, but I knew I’d seen her somewhere.
Timcharger
Speaking of the banner picture…
Because his gloves and her top is similar in color,
it took a while for me to figure out what is going
on. It’s either a glove-with-open-fingers or some
magical way of grabbing breasts that I haven’t
mastered yet. 🙂
Shannon Nutt
This is the first theatrical trailer that made me physically queasy. I can’t imagine sitting through the whole movie. I wonder if movie ushers are going to have to clean up – ahem – “messes” over opening weekend. 🙁
Josh Zyber
Is the whole movie staged as one (fake) continuous shot, or does it have edits? If it has edits, how does that work with the first-person p.o.v.?
Phil
It has jump cuts fairly regularly, both to link together tricky shots and to speed things up. Pretty clever way of simplifying things for a pov feature actually. I didn’t even notice the jumps after a while.