Hardcore Henry ★★★

JUST like the video game style it emulates, the body count in Hardcore Henry is massive…perhaps too massive.

This 2015 sci-fi actioner, filmed entirely from a first-person perspective, does not let up for 80-odd minutes. Enjoyment of the film will hinge on your tolerance for this risky style and close-up bloody violence.

The camera ducks, weaves, rotates, shudders and zooms, careering wildly with our hero sprinting, leaping, falling and crawling through the streets of Moscow, mowing down almost every person who crosses his path.

If you suffer from any form of motion sickness, this is not the film experience for you. The story is basic and, at times, confusing, but I admired the audacious and challenging approach.

South African Sharlto Copley, from District 9 and Elysium, tends to be a polarising presence amongst audiences and critics due to his off-kilter approach to roles. His best role to date is the voice-work as the adolescent robot kidnapped by hip-hop gangsters in the under-rated Chappie.

Copley has found a nice niche in this genre and has a lot of fun in Hardcore Henry with a range of roles guiding our anti-hero through the mounting carnage.

Just like a video game avatar, he regenerates as a new character every time he spectacularly fails to evade a bullet, blade or flame-thrower.

While the action is obviously the main drawcard, some of the best scenes are enhanced by the locations and don’t necessarily require blood to be spraying. One such highlight comes early in the film when Henry and his love interest fall from a mid-air location via a glass escape pod.

Not fully successful, but a brave attempt to explore something new and different.