‘Hardcore Henry’ transports videogame experience to big screen

If you want to watch an R-rated videogame, “Hardcore Henry” might just be the film for you. In style and scope, here is a movie ripped straight from the world of the first-person shooter. But rather than sink into gimmicky and ill-conceived conceits, “Henry” is actually a slick hour and a half action thriller with plenty of visuals and little pretension.

A true first-person, all you see is through the eyes of Henry, a resurrected super soldier with no memory whatsoever. Suddenly thrust into a deadly world for which he is very well prepared, Henry struggles to regain his memory and save his wife from a local warlord. The plot diverges from there, but the shtick stays the same: You only see what Henry sees.

“Hardcore Henry” is very much like watching a buddy play a videogame, and there’s nothing wrong with that really. You would think the gimmick would get, if not boring, at least a little tiring after a while. Where “Henry” succeeds, however, is in its pacing, which keeps a film built for constant movement on the ropes. It also never takes itself too seriously, making it about the kind of movie you’d expect. Nothing profound, entertaining though.

At the end of the day, what you’re taking away from this film is the first big-name commercial effort to translate the video game experience to the big screen. It’s a daunting task from the outset, but we’ll have to see how the market responds in box office receipts to make a real determination. In the meantime, “Hardcore Henry” stands as more of a rotating attraction — a taste of the times, if you will.

That being said, film is constantly evolving, and whether or not my preferences are a little more traditional, you have to accept that digital and stylistic changes will continue to push movies in bold new directions. A hundred years ago, people were just figuring out that you could pick up and move a camera. Now we’re using GoPros to make million-dollar pictures.

It begs the question: Provided you build a good enough story, what’s to say this doesn’t become the next step in cinematic history?

I personally think the problem with a film like this is that it’s pigeonholed from the start. You have to keep the audience engaged with a fast pace or else the gimmick will start to get pretty old pretty quickly. Not to say “Henry” isn’t a fun ride. I’ll just need to see if a slower movie is possible before I can be sold on videogame style in mainstream movies. In either case, “Hardcore Henry” is a fun ride, though perhaps not one I’m clamoring to see again anytime soon.

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Michael Lomax is a writer-filmmaker currently at work on a film script to be set and shot in Albany.