Sadly Over-hyped

A Disappointing Continuation

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Gibson a wondering mercenary living in the remnants of a post-apocalyptic New York. Whilst traversing through the wastes of New York, he stumbles across a cyborg who's carrying vital information about a cure for the plague that's ravaged the Earth. He takes decides to escort her to Atlanta to deliver the cure, whilst being chased down by a marauding gang of crazed bandits, in-which Gibson has had past encounters with.Cyborg is a flat out terrible film. As I write this review i'm really struggling to find a single positive aspect from the film. This film doesn't contain one redeeming quality, going into the film I was hoping for a 'It's so bad, it's good' scenario, but this film couldn't even manage that. Every single aspect of this film is poorly executed. Whilst the film is a direct-to-video B movie, it doesn't excuse the sheer sloppy craftsmanship that's present on screen.The action scenes were woefully choreographed. And the stunt work was some of the worst I've seen in a film. However this is further exacerbated by terrible shot compositions. At the best of times the action was half in frame, with the rest of the action set-pieces focused on the bland set design. The editing is utterly atrocious which made the half of a fight scene I could see, totally incoherent.The films score? Soundtrack? I don't know what the fuck it was, but it wasn't music. Seriously a four year old using saucepans as drums would've been more audibly pleasurable. The films music was so tonally jarring I felt like I was watching a 90's daytime soap mixed with bad porno music.All the actors in the film were abysmal. Jean-Claude was bad, but he at-least tried with his severely limited range. The main villain came across like a pound store Arnie. And whilst the script was giving none of the actors anything to work with, they were still boring and insipid and unable to bring a distinct characterisation to their roles.This is easily one of the worst films I've seen this year. This film made me break my one rule I have when watching films, which is to not fall asleep. Three hours later, it's taken me longer to watch an 85 minute 'action film' then it took for me to watch Doctor Zhivago, I think that sums up this dumpster fire of a film.

Gibson Rickenbacker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a bodyguard who, as part of his duties, protects Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon) from being attacked. Rickenbacker strikes up a conversation with Prophet and discovers that she is a cyborg that has been sent from Atlanta to gather data on a deadly plague. Prophet needs to get the data back to Atlanta and believes that scientists in Atlanta may be able to find a cure for the plague based on the data she has collected. However, when a group of pirates led by the notorious Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) learn of the data that Prophet has gathered they kidnap her with the intention of taking her to Atlanta in order to use the data for their own evil purposes. Rickenbacker now finds himself having to save Prophet and also make sure that she gets back to Atlanta.I'll say something for this film and that is that it does, at least on the surface, have more intelligence than your average JCVD film. The idea of a deadly plague wiping out civilisation with one person potentially finding a cure is certainly something that should work on paper. Sadly though Cyborg just doesn't have enough flesh on its narrative bones....It's all well and good coming up with an interesting concept but to then expand upon this concept to create an engrossing and rewarding cinematic experience is something else entirely and this really is where Cyborg fails....Yes we're told that there is a deadly plague but the details of the plague are pretty much kept a secret. Why we're not privy to more information about the plague is something that only the filmmakers can answer? The fact that we're given so little information about the plague means that it does become a hard film to care about. This in turn has a knock on effect with other aspects of the story such as Rickenbacker's flashbacks. Whilst these flashbacks presumably exist to give a bit of depth to his character they seemed to be clumsily thrown in and seem almost at odds with the rest of the film. We're given a lot of development to one character, but no real development to the story??? Hmmm... just seemed a bit strange to me. The flashbacks are good at first, but become tiresome when you realise what little purpose they are actually serving....We all know that JCVD films suffer somewhat in the acting department, but the performances in this film are just beyond the pale. Klyn is a good physical presence but he's so cartoonish here that it just becomes impossible to take him seriously. Was that his actual voice or was it dubbed?? Either way it sounded awful and I found myself laughing whenever he was on screen. The rest of the cast are pretty much the same with either some members trying too hard or not trying at all. The ridiculous performances actually clash with the serious story that is attempting to be told and ultimately undermine the whole film.Cyborg is a terrible film and unlike many other JCVD films it isn't even terrible in a way that is entertaining. One or two good fight scenes are not enough to save this film and I personally feel that everyone involved with this mess should be ashamed of themselves.

The basic components for a serviceable 'Mad Max' rip-off are all here, but the story is so listless and the pacing so slack--even at 85 minutes--that it totally undermines the film's relative strengths.Van Damme may not exactly be Brando, but he normally has an easy charm that buoys even his worst films. Not so here, as JC is asked to be a brooding anti-hero. This robs the film of its greatest asset right off the bat. The rest of the cast mostly just growl. So much so that *my* throat was sore by the end.Schlockmaster Albert Puyn does do a decent job of creating his post-apocalyptic world on a shoestring budget, and there are a couple of solid moments (the flashbacks that set up the history between JC and the villain, a fight in an abandoned factory) and some great shots (JC suspended above a toadie by doing the splits between two walls) but none of it is enough to save this tedious dreck.

This is probably the last true B film Jean Claude Van Damme made before he hit the big time for a brief period. However Albert Pyun is a true B movie director who has difficulty elevating any acting abilities of any of his actors.The positive aspects of this film is that the production values of this film is very high. The sets and the set dressing shows a lot of technical skill. For a post apocalypse set film there is a lot of outside location filming when these films are tend to be done on studio sets. There is also some good photography and a few decent action sequences.The downside is a poor plot, the bad guy is leaden with a horrid voice. We have JCVD doing some signature moves with his high kicks, even a splits scene but some woeful roundhouse kicks time after time very slowly, all people have to do is jump out of the way.The cyborg in question is a woman who is carrying information which she needs to take to Atlantic City as it holds a cure for a virus. This future did not have Wi-fi! Also this cyborg also did not have any kick ass moves programmed by a Series 800 Terminator robot.The film is only sporadically entertaining, lapses into silliness such as flashback sequences with Van Damme in a bad wig.