Hardcore Henry
Hardcore Henryis only partly successful at using the first person POV format to create a unique cinematic experience.
Hardcore Henryis told entirely from the first - person perspective of Henry , a human beings who arouse to find himself in a laboratory with no memory of his past times , having been transform into a cybernetic superintendent - man by a scientist named Estelle ( Haley Bennett ) - who , as she explains to him , is also Henry ’s married woman and had performed this procedure on him in Holy Order to lay aside his life . However , before Estelle and her her co - workers can restore Henry ’s power to verbalize ( much less , explain more about precisely what is go on ) , their facility is attacked by Akan ( Danila Kozlovsky ) , a potent warlord with telekinetic abilities who is after Henry for mysterious , though understandably villainous reason .
Estelle helps Henry to escape , only to be captured by Akan herself and need surety for get Henry out . Henry , having retrieve himself in the unfamiliar city of Moscow and with no one to facilitate him but an enigmatic homo distinguish Jimmy ( Sharlto Copley ) - who Henry quickly comes to realize is no average human being either - thus set out on an insanely severe deputation : rescue Estelle and discontinue Akan from enacting whatever this terrible architectural plan ( go around around Henry ) is that he ’s concocted .
Hardcore Henrywas in part inspire by the medicine videos that the picture ’s atomic number 27 - writer / director Ilya Naishuller created for the Russian indie sway band Biting Elbows ( see " The Stampede " and " Bad Motherf***er " ) - which , likeHardcore Henry , were shoot in the first - person POV visual style . However , the movie is also understandably aiming to adapt democratic video plot figure - both aestheticandnarrative tropes at that - to the big screen with the intention of creating an innovative ( and immersive ) cinematic experience that differs from that of both a conventional sci - fi action / thriller motion-picture show and a first - individual POV video game that falls under the same writing style . Hardcore Henryis certainly a notable and ambitious experimentation in that respect … which is not to say that it ’s a fully successful one , too .
TheHardcore Henrynarrative crafted by Naishuller and his co - writer Will Stewart bid two acts ' worth of frantically paced story build - up that culminate with a third act full of payoffs - most of which end up being either derivative and/or predictable in nature . While the picture succeed in maintaining a sensation of intrigue throughout the first two - third of its run clock time by leaving so many questions surrounding Henry ’s retiring open , it ’s less effective at world - building and falls little at create a peculiarly interesting mythology - much less , one that beg for additional geographic expedition in a continuation . For similar reasons , it ’s never whole clear ifHardcore Henryis aiming to station - up juvenile B - movie tropes or gleefully squeeze them , as the movie work well when it mystify with either a knife - in - cheek or straight - faced tone - not when it ’s switch between them , as it oftentimes does throughout its running time .
Hardcore Henryisn’t the first movie to feature action chronological succession film in the first - someone POV flair - something that movies like the 2005 video game film adaptationDoomand even the late Sacha Baron Coen action / comedyThe Brothers Grimsbyhave also done - nor is it the first movie released in theaters in 2016 to be shoot solely in that format , either ( as the revulsion / sci - fi thrillerPandemictechnically beat up it to the punch ) . WhatHardcore Henrydoes put up is a nonstop barrage of tight - twenty-five percent ( and usually quite graphic ) violence as well as visually - inventive camera angle and shot compositions , as realized through some of the most truly daredevil stunt choreography and free - rolling cinematography / camerawork this side of theCrankandThe Raidmovies . For those same reasons , however , Hardcore Henrywill probably go down as the moving picture of 2016 that is most likely to make you feel nauseous from see it ( due to motion sickness , that is , not the gory , over the top violence ) .
There are moments inHardcore Henrywhere the aperient of its in high spirits - octane thrills feels more grounded than it would in a picture plot , but on the whole the film fails short of using the first - individual POV format to make its onscreen actionthatmuch more visceral than if the citizenry and places onscreen had been rendered digitally instead of being from the literal world - nor does it use Henry ’s POV as a unique means for delineation , with regard to what he does or where he turn his attending at any given fourth dimension in the film . It ’s potential the first - person POV format , like the found - footage format , is a stylistic technique that needs to be not only integral to the story at manus being told , but also used to explore a more fully develop plot line so as to come off being more than a gismo . Since that is n’t the case withHardcore Henry , the film does n’t needs offer a viewing experience that ’s all that different from only watch someone else meet a first - person POV style TV plot .
execution are n’t on the nose a key element ofHardcore Henry , though Sharlto Copley is well the film ’s standout - as the actor , well be intimate for his collaborations with Neill Blomkamp , has play playing the role of Jimmy : a soul who ( without spoiling too much ) change in his behavior and appearance scene by scene , in gain to being a character that is clearly riffing on the concept of Nonproliferation Center ( read : non - playable theatrical role ) in video games . By comparison , Danila Kozlovsky ( Vampire Academy ) is just hammy - and not much else - in the role of the diabolical and inexplicably super - powered Akan , while Haley Bennett ( The Equalizer ) as Estelle is a jolly generic damsel in hurt for the bulk of the celluloid .
The shortstop of it?Hardcore Henryis only partially successful at using the first person POV format to make a unequaled cinematic experience . The film sure as shooting has its moments where it excel as an innovative action / thriller , but on the whole it does n’t present a strong case for using the first - person view visual style for more that limited amounts of meter in a movie - though , build up with a more fully - developed originative vision behind it , perhaps a future undertaking will make better use of the format ( the same way that certain New filmmakers have discover ways to utilise found - footage to good gist than others ) . As is stand , the primary reason to seeHardcore Henryin a theater is to get the experience of see a full - blown first - person perspective thriller … and to see if you can sit through the whole film without wanting to throw up afterwards .
TRAILER
Hardcore Henryis now playing in U.S. theaters nationally . It is 96 minutes long and is Rated universal gas constant for non - stop bloody vicious violence and mayhem , language throughout , sexual capacity / nudeness and drug economic consumption .
Hardcore Henry is a 2015 action film filmed only from a first - person view . The audience witnesses the fib though the center of the titular cyborg Henry , who embarks on a pursuit through the streets of Moscow to save his married woman from a sinewy warlord and recover his identity after his memory is pass over .
Haley Bennett in Hardcore Henry
