Camera Held in Fidgit Spinner (Hardcore Henry)
We described Minions as a dinner of cotton candy. Hardcore Henry is a 76-pack case of pop-rocks washed down by a 3 liter of RC Cola. It is full of exiting bits that you’ll really like, but unless you have the constitution of a teenager, you’re going to feel pretty sick afterward—or during.
The chief cause of the nausea (especially if you already suffer from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) is that the whole movie is shot with Go-Pro cameras strapped to the titular character’s head (First-Person Point Of View). Since it is also an action movie, this means that it is full of spastic jerking and spinning camera work. Conversely, this device is used to good effect in pulling the audience into the film. The viewer is Henry, suddenly awakened (apparently from the dead) in Moscow with no firm memory and immediately thrust into the events.
The story itself is actually pretty good, if simple, hyper-violent, and ferociously paced. It has sort of the logic of a video game. Henry is continuously racing and fighting his way toward an unclear final goal with incremental things he must accomplish. Supporting characters enter his life quickly, with poor definition, are critically important for the moment, and exit with little concern about what happens next. It seems like Sharlto Copely is playing every male in his life—almost like it is a video game and the modelers only used one character texture—then, we find out why there are so many of him.
Henry is an experiment in reanimating people caught between two developers who wish to use the base technology for different purposes. Jimmy (Sharlto Copely) is actually a wheelchair bound scientist who has built avatar bodies that he controls to regain his life. The villain is a telekinetic who is building an army to take over the world.
Yes, I said telekinetic. It’s never explained why or how, but he is stupidly powerful—as a real human who had such an ability would be. The climactic battle between Henry and Akan (said villain)—come on that’s not a spoiler, of course the hero and villain are going to fight—gives us a good sense of how futile fighting someone who doesn’t have to touch you to throw you off a building would be. Henry is not without resources, though, so long as his battery lasts.
All in all Hardcore Henry is a good, fast-paced movie. The lack of exposition works well for the feeling of the film, and you don’t really feel anything is missing. The POV is a barrier to some, but it does help tell the story. Worth seeing if you have an adult dose of Dramamine within reach.