Cyborg Movie Review

Cyborg (1989)

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Written by: Albert Pyun
Directed by: Albert Pyun
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Richter, Vincent Klyn
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A martial artist hunts a killer in a plague-infested urban dump of the future.

Verdict
This is a budget movie in every sense. All parts of the movie are lacking; the plot is thin, the dialog barely qualifies, and the acting leaves a lot to be desired. This is an action movie first, neglecting all other aspects of the film. Unfortunately the action isn't even that good. This movie follows the rule of cool. If it's cool it doesn't need to make sense, and this is not a movie to be analyzed.
Skip it.

Review
Pyun wrote the script in a weekend and filmed this in three weeks after both a Spider-Man and He-Man project fell through and the production company didn't want to waste the money spent on pre-production. Compared to any movie with a moderate budget, this is lacking. It's not a good movie. I saw this a long time ago, and didn't remember it being that bad. Maybe I just hadn't seen anything decent as a comparison.

From the very start it's clear this is campy sci-fi. A voice over from the villain Fender (Vincent Klyn) explains the apocalyptic world before claiming to relish the dystopia. This is a B movie completely. It's a mindless 80s action movie where the only notable thing is the setting. Even then the locations seem cobbled together.

Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Gibson Rickenbacker

Gibson (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is after Fender, intent on revenge. We get flashbacks from the past that indicate Gibson has been chasing Fender for years. Gibson's chase just happens to intersect Fender when he's captured a cyborg with data to cure the plague that has ravaged the world. The plot is nearly nonexistent. What follows is a rinse and repeat of Van Damme sneaking up on the gang, picking off goons, and then having to move to a new location. It's one fight after another, and none of them are memorable. The fights employ plenty of jump cuts due to budget constraints. It's not far from seeing the wind up to the punch and then a cut to an opponent on the ground. 

The action is terrible for a good movie, alright for a bad movie. All of the dialog is terrible. When communication isn't reduced to grunts, we get feeble one liners. It's understandable as the leads don't deliver dialog well.

Vincent Klyn plays Fender Tremolo

While never directly addressed, it seemingly takes Gibson years to catch up to Fender. Yet Fender sails on a boat down the East coast to Atlanta and Gibson manages to keep up with him on foot. Later Gibson is abandoned and takes time to recuperate before facing Fender again. Fender seemingly hasn't moved. As quickly as Fender catches up in this movie, how did it take years to first find Fender? There is a lot this movie attempts that makes no sense. To note the passage of time, Fender's glasses in the past are clean. In the present they are very dirty. Can he not clean them? The only reason he has sunglasses is so he can take them off and the bright blue contacts along with the music accent will  shock us.

This movie makes no sense, but it's not meant to. It's an 80s action movie, and plenty in this sub-genre offered very little. The last fight in this has so much grunting you have to wonder if it's some kind of joke. This is the type of movie that was more prevalent at the time. You don't get cheap movies like this anymore.