Hardcore Henry smashed into theaters less than two weeks ago.
Photo courtesy of YouTube
“Hardcore Henry” is a first-person action film that focuses on Henry, who is resurrected from the dead and has no memory of who he is. He is resurrected as a half man/half cyborg, and soon realizes that he is being targeted by a group of mercenaries. When this group of mercenaries, led by powerful warlord Akan takes Henry’s wife hostage, Henry goes out of his way to get her back. Along the way he meets Jimmy, who tries to assist Henry with catching the warlord and rescuing his wife.
The most impressive aspects of “Hardcore Henry” are the action and stunt work. There is so much mayhem and the action scenes are really well-done. A lot of the action is non-stop, and I found every action scene to be very entertaining. I also have to give credit to the filmmaker for incorporating a first-person point of view as the way to tell the story. For the most part, it really worked, and I liked that the viewer watched the movie through Henry’s perspective. I also liked the fact that we never got to see what Henry looked like.
The simple story has admittedly been done many times, but it is executed well in this movie. Because we see everything through Henry’s eyes, we only know what he knows — as a result of this, there is no character development for the villain or Henry’s wife. I wish I got to know about more of the characters because I think the character development would have made for a better movie. However, the best character in the movie is Jimmy, who is played by Sharlto Copley. He stole the entire movie. He provides a lot of humor and is by far the most interesting character.
I had a lot of fun watching “Hardcore Henry.” Even though it doesn’t have the best story or the most interesting characters, I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the movie.
I must stress that, because this is a point-of-view movie, there are a lot of camera movements and at times it is a little hard to focus on the movie. The constant camera movements may also be nauseating to some people.
With that being said, “Hardcore Henry” succeeds as an action movie.
