Cyborg

Released: April 1989

Director: Albert Pyun

Rated R

Run Time: 86 Minutes

Distributor: MGM Studios/Cannon Film Group

Genre: Action/Science Fiction

Cast:
Jean-Claude Van Damme: Gibson Rickenbacker
Deborah Richter: Nady Simmons
Vincent Klyn: Fender Tremolo
Alex Daniels: Marshall Strat
Dayle Haddon: Pearl Prophet
Ralf Moeller: Brick Bardo

The 80’s were a very interesting time when it comes to movies.  We had a lot of fantastic movies like Raiders of the Lost ArkThe Terminator, The Road Warrior, and Aliens among others.  On the flip-side, we had lots of bad movies as well, most of them courtesy of the infamous and now-defunct Cannon Film Group.  They gave us some serious crap like Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, a vast array of ninja movies, and a whole slew of Chuck Norris movies.  As bad as most of the movies they gave us, they also managed to produce some memorable and decent movies like Highlander and Masters of the Universe(that may be debatable to some, but I loved the hell out of it).  In 1988, Cannon gave us our first real look at up-and-coming action star Jean-Claude Van Damme in a martial arts movie called Bloodsport.  While it wasn’t particularly accepted when it was released, it quickly became a cult classic, and is generally regarded as one of the better martial arts movies of the 80’s.  Because of that particular break-out role, Van Damme’s career really took off.  In 1989, he starred in a little science fiction film called Cyborg.

Opening in a future where the world has been devastated by a plague, Cyborg follows pirate-killer Gibson Rickenbacker as he discovers a cyborg, Pearl Prophet, needs help getting to Atlanta.  After being ambushed by pirates led by the mysterious and violent Fender, Pearl is taken captive.  Gibson decides to follow them, because he has a personal vendetta against Fender.  The story is less Terminator and more Mad Max.  While the story isn’t particularly original, it’s not actually terrible.  My issue with the story, however, is that there are certain characters that I would have loved to learn more about.  Fender, in particular, is one character that I would love to learn the history of.  We do know, through flashbacks, that Fender did some really terrible things to Gibson.

For a Van Damme movie, Cyborg has a pretty serious mean streak.  The level of violence in this movie is really unlike anything that I’ve seen from those kinds of movies.  From what I’ve been reading, the director was forced to cut some of the more violent material to get down to an R-rating.  That makes me very curious about what was cut.  If there’s an issue with the action in the film, it has more to do with the camera-work than the actual violence itself.  Make no mistake, some of the violence in this movie isn’t particularly enjoyable, and I don’t think it was meant to be.  While the action is pretty solid across the board, I found that some fight sequences were marred by an unnecessary amount of edits.  It jumps from one angle to another too quickly.  That kind of editing tends to make things a little more confusing than they need to be, but the overall action is pretty hard-core and I found myself pretty engaged with it.

While the film’s focus was supposed to be about Pearl, the cyborg, I found myself more interested in two particular characters:  Gibson and Fender.  Gibson, in particular, because he’s haunted by the memories of what Fender did to him several years prior to the film’s events.  Fender on the other hand, is a complete mystery.  This guy is the leader of a band of pirates and is almost superhuman in terms of strength.  As far as I’m concerned, Fender is one of the coolest and most interesting villains that Van Damme has gone up against.  Make no mistake, the character is pure evil.  He enjoys killing and he enjoys the chaos of the world.  I’m curious as to what made him that way.  If he’s human, he’s unnaturally strong.  If he’s a cyborg of some kind, it would explain some things, but not others.  We just don’t know.  On one hand, that’s frustrating, but on the other hand, I enjoy the mystery.  The acting is kind of…meh across the board.  Again, this is Van Damme’s movie through and through.  While I wouldn’t say his acting was the greatest, his screen presence was phenomenal.  The same could be said for Vincent Klyn, who played Fender.  The guy’s physique and overall look was enough to be extremely intimidating, but his physical presence was amazing.  While Klyn would be remembered most for his role in Cyborg, he would get some roles later on.

The visuals for the film were surprisingly not terrible for a low-budget sci-fi flick.  Some of the backgrounds and matte paintings are pretty interesting.  However, the one thing I didn’t particularly care for was when Pearl revealed herself to Gibson.  The animation and design of that particular sequence may have been acceptable back in the 80’s, but now, it’s just downright freaky.  I look at that and I’m somewhat repulsed.  It doesn’t last very long, but stuff like that you can’t get out of your head.  Aside from that, the production values on the movie were decent.  It certainly felt like a post-apocalyptic movie.

Overall, while I wouldn’t say this is the greatest science fiction movie ever made, it is by no means the worst.  It’s got some really good things going for it:  Jean-Claude Van Damme’s performance and presence as well as a particularly strong and memorable villain.  It also has some pretty decent action sequences that hit really hard.  Even though some violence may have been cut to get the film down to an R-rating, they still really pushed the envelope.  Cyborg is without a doubt one of Albert Pyun’s best movies.  It’s one of the movies that I grew up with and I love the hell out of it.  It’s not without it’s problems, which are fairly obvious, but I have to give credit where it is due.  Cyborg is one of the most interesting sci-fi movies I’ve ever seen.  Would I put it up against the likes of The Terminator or Mad Max?  Not really, but I think it stands well enough on its own.  I’ve been hearing rumors and conjecture that there’s a director’s cut out there somewhere.  I hope I really get to see that version at some point in my life, if it exists.  At the end of the day, though, what we have here is a solid little action film that’s one of Van Damme’s more interesting roles and one of the best villains in cinema as far as I’m concerned.

Final Recommendation: Beware of bloodthirsty pirates that wear dark sunglasses and chainmail.  8.5/10.

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