It’s often a derogatory phrase to say that a film looks like
a video game, though this is usually directed at a critic’s distaste for CGI
graphics and their inability to emulate reality. However, I can’t really think of a film that actually looked like a video game; it
isn’t as if the Super Mario Brothers
movie was shot like the hallway scene from Oldboy, as the titular characters platformed their way through obstacles. In retrospect, it seems inevitable that a
film would attempt this sort of stylistic choice, and the advent of the GoPro
makes the first-person shooter the perfect genre to test out the translation of
video game action into a cinematic format.
Enter Hardcore Henry, an
experimental film that takes its stab at this conceit by placing its audience
in the role of the titular character.
You are Henry. You
wake up with no memory and no voice as a woman claiming to be your wife
attaches cybernetic limbs to where your original limbs used to be. As she orients you to your surroundings, a
villainous crime lord with psychic powers abducts her so that he may build an
army of similar cyborg warriors. With
the help of a constantly respawning sidekick named Jimmy (District 9’s Sharlto Copley), you must fight through waves of
Russian thugs to keep yourself alive and save your wife.
Narratively, the film has a lot of fun with its first-person
perspective, addressing issues of identity and the nature of the shared
theatrical experience by speaking to the audience directly. The plot is kept video game simple, but to
pretty neat effect as the story elements converge in ways to turn what would
normally be strange cinematic choices, like Jimmy’s seemingly endless supply of
lives, into a comical experience that can only work if one accepts that this film runs
on video game logic. Yet, in no way does it
exhibit even the pretense of being a thoughtful meditation on the film medium (as the
script’s unfortunate number of Neanderthalic homophobic jabs should indicate), nor does it need to be, as it doesn’t even try to make the first person shots seem continuous,
constantly cutting in ways to make the action more intense.
That intensity, though, is both the film’s
greatest strength and its greatest weakness, depending on who you are. There are some very fun and inventively
violent action setpieces in this film, and some of the film’s best shots will
remain lodged in my brain from how exhilaratingly fun they were. After all, that’s what you’re paying
admission to see, and this film certainly delivers on that front. However, there were an equal number of shots that
will likely distress those with weaker stomachs: not because of the blood and
viscera, but because the camera shakes around just as much as a real person’s
would in during a combative confrontation.
This isn’t really an issue during the shooting sections of the film, but
early on there are a lot of scenes with hand-to-hand combat and parkour
acrobatics that were nauseating to experience in a darkened theater with no point of reference to give the eyes something solid to focus on.
Perhaps it’s best to think of Hardcore Henry as more of an experience than a movie, something
akin to a theme park ride. Despite the
motion sickness I felt after walking out of my screening, I can definitely
recommend it for those who can take ninety minutes of intense camera movement,
and even those on the fence should know that the worst of it is over by the
halfway point. I doubt the experience
will translate as well to the small screen, but if your gut’s temperament is
anything like mine, it might be worth the wait.
It’s an interesting experiment that is largely successful and a lot of
fun, even if you have to deal with some gay jokes and some equally nauseating
camerawork every once in a while to get to the good stuff.
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