...but at least it's not about Duke Nukem Forever.
So, Hardcore Henry is an action movie shot entirely in first person by Ilya Naishuller. Because my not very secret vice is bad action movies, I went to blow 11 bucks on it to save you guys the trouble.
The Good:
Okay, first, let's get the good out of the way. The first person perspective is unique. There's some actually interesting concepts which are really nicely cyberpunk, like one of the secondary characters remote-controlling a pile of proxies. If you don't get motion sick easily, the first person parkour is immensely exhilarating. And there's some scenes which are just ridiculously badass. The sound is pretty great, and there's something really cool about a guy blowing fiddy men away in first person compared to doing it outside. Also, he takes out a fucking tank with a katana. You can't make this shit up.
The Mediocre:
The movie is like, an hour long fight scene, more or less, with 30 minutes of non-fightiness. Since I went in expecting dumb action movie shenanigans and explosions, that was okay with me, but most people do not have my love of bad dumb action movies and might want things like 'plot' and 'characterization.'
The Bad:
Unfortunately, the first person perspective makes a lot of the scenes jerky and hard to follow, especially if you're used to other movies. If you've played way too many FPSes it's easier, but even so it's got a lot of shakycam. There's a lot of unnecessary filler scenes which exist just to establish how much of a badass the protagonist is, which is unnecessary. He just wasted like, fitty guys in the last 20 minutes, I think we know he's a badass, thank you very much Ilya.
The Ugly:
The plot and setting. Oh my god the plot and setting. The plot is basically about as deep as the plot of Doom, and the plot twist that comes in at the end makes a very valiant attempt but doesn't really manage to save it. I mean, let me summarize what the plot is. "Russians have kidnapped your waifu. Are you a Hardcore enough Henry to save your waifu?" There. Plot done. Not kidding.
The movie spends like, ten minutes in a brothel full of topless women for... I don't even know what fucking reason there is. Like, there might be something clever the movie is trying to tell us where women and men are both reduced to things-the protagonist's a cyborg, his sidekick throws away spare bodies like ammunition, and so on-but I don't really feel like that was the point of the brothel. And even if it was the point of the brothel, they could have gotten the idea across without all those tits. The antagonist is almost but not quite self-aware, talking about how "pussy" is basically the protagonist's motivator. In the end, I'm not sure whether the movie is satirizing the objectification of women and doing it badly, trying to titillate and failing at it, or trying to have it both ways when you really can't.
Should You See It?
If you like bad action movies, don't get motion sick easily, and don't mind the random tits out of nowhere, sure. Otherwise... you should probably wait until it's like, rentable for $1.99.
So, Hardcore Henry is an action movie shot entirely in first person by Ilya Naishuller. Because my not very secret vice is bad action movies, I went to blow 11 bucks on it to save you guys the trouble.
The Good:
Okay, first, let's get the good out of the way. The first person perspective is unique. There's some actually interesting concepts which are really nicely cyberpunk, like one of the secondary characters remote-controlling a pile of proxies. If you don't get motion sick easily, the first person parkour is immensely exhilarating. And there's some scenes which are just ridiculously badass. The sound is pretty great, and there's something really cool about a guy blowing fiddy men away in first person compared to doing it outside. Also, he takes out a fucking tank with a katana. You can't make this shit up.
The Mediocre:
The movie is like, an hour long fight scene, more or less, with 30 minutes of non-fightiness. Since I went in expecting dumb action movie shenanigans and explosions, that was okay with me, but most people do not have my love of bad dumb action movies and might want things like 'plot' and 'characterization.'
The Bad:
Unfortunately, the first person perspective makes a lot of the scenes jerky and hard to follow, especially if you're used to other movies. If you've played way too many FPSes it's easier, but even so it's got a lot of shakycam. There's a lot of unnecessary filler scenes which exist just to establish how much of a badass the protagonist is, which is unnecessary. He just wasted like, fitty guys in the last 20 minutes, I think we know he's a badass, thank you very much Ilya.
The Ugly:
The plot and setting. Oh my god the plot and setting. The plot is basically about as deep as the plot of Doom, and the plot twist that comes in at the end makes a very valiant attempt but doesn't really manage to save it. I mean, let me summarize what the plot is. "Russians have kidnapped your waifu. Are you a Hardcore enough Henry to save your waifu?" There. Plot done. Not kidding.
The movie spends like, ten minutes in a brothel full of topless women for... I don't even know what fucking reason there is. Like, there might be something clever the movie is trying to tell us where women and men are both reduced to things-the protagonist's a cyborg, his sidekick throws away spare bodies like ammunition, and so on-but I don't really feel like that was the point of the brothel. And even if it was the point of the brothel, they could have gotten the idea across without all those tits. The antagonist is almost but not quite self-aware, talking about how "pussy" is basically the protagonist's motivator. In the end, I'm not sure whether the movie is satirizing the objectification of women and doing it badly, trying to titillate and failing at it, or trying to have it both ways when you really can't.
Should You See It?
If you like bad action movies, don't get motion sick easily, and don't mind the random tits out of nowhere, sure. Otherwise... you should probably wait until it's like, rentable for $1.99.
