CYBORG
A film review by Dale L. Skran, Jr.
Copyright 1989 Dale L. Skran, Jr.
CYBORG belongs to a small sub-genre, the Science-Fiction Martial Arts film. This sub-genre is larger than might be supposed, since it includes all those terrible "gladiators in a future arena" movies such as DEATH RACE 2000 and AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK. Another recent example is STEEL DAWN which has a slightly more substantial SF plot than the various "death races." A +1 film that fits into this sub-genre is THE RUNNING MAN which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger duking it out on a game show with hockey-stick wielding psychos. These films as a group are poorly made and exhibit low quality, unrealistic fighting.
Recently, a number of martial artists have attempted to put on the screen a higher level of realism in fighting. The two major examples are Steven Senegal, an Akidoist starring in ABOVE THE LAW and Jean Claude Van Damme in BLOODSPORT. Neither film has a very strong or believable plot, but both contain excellent fight scenes that are well above the typical Hollywood slam-bang. A digression into the world of stunt-fighting is called for at this point. Hopefully movie audiences are aware that movie fights are carefully planned to maximize the breakage to surrounding walls, tables, lamps, etc. to increase the drama of the moment. Another "Hollywoodism" is that scene where the hero, punched/kicked many times by the villain, draws from deep within themselves the resources to go on and win. Another "Hollywoodism" is the villain gaining the upper hand, and then squandering it to explain their plans for world domination or just getting the girl (guy). A final "Hollywoodism" is that in spite of all the slam-bang, people just dust themselves off, and escape more or less unharmed.
Jean Claude Van Damme plans a ninjitsu-trained fighter (Frank Dux) in BLOODSPORT who enters a secret, illegal, "no rules," all styles contest. The framing plot is about -3, the training scenes about 0 level, but the fights are +2. They are excellently filmed, diverse, and very well thought out. Van Damme is an extremely flexible martial artist who clearly has mastery of an enviable variety of techniques. He is pleasing on the screen, and seems fairly convincing in his relatively simple roll. Much of the impetus of the story derives from the knowledge that it is supposedly true: a Frank Dux really exists who claims to have won just such an underground tournament. I have read interviews with Dux, and apparently the fights are fairly close to what he claims actually happened. BLOODSPORT was a very low budget film that played surprisingly well and propelled Van Damme into the limelight.
With this background, it was with bated breath that a tiny group of fans of SF Martial Arts awaited CYBORG, a new SF movie starring Van Damme. It should be noted that there is also a written branch of SF martial arts, notably STREETLETHAL and THE KUNDALINI EQUATION by real- life Kung-fu stylist Steven Barnes, who co-authored DREAM PARK with Larry Niven. Other examples include MATADORA and THE MAN WHO NEVER MISSED by Steve Perry, and to some extent all cyber-punk, but especially NEUROMANCER, JOHNNY MNEMONIC, HARDWIRED, and VOICE OF THE WHIRLWIND.
Variety reviewed CYBORG as just a series of futuristic fights. This would have been a considerable improvement! In fact, there is just enough plot to seriously impede the fights. CYBORG resembles MAD MAX in that they are both revenge tales with colorful villains set in a violent post-holocaust world. Both have boring and ill conceived sets of flashbacks to the bucolic days the hero spent with a wife/girlfriend who eventually gets wasted by the colorful villain. Both have a few good scenes here and there, but overall are very poor films.
There are several things that make CYBORG much worse than it should have been. One is that Van Damme's female sidekick is totally miscast. She should have been played by an unknown but technically proficient female martial artist who had some minimal acting skills. Instead, she is played by your basic movie bimbo. Her continued survival in spite of her obvious lack of martial skill and general stupidity greatly decreases the credibility of the film.
Another problem is that a lot of CYBORG builds up to a big fight between Van Damme and a colorful villain. There is nothing wrong with this, but unfortunately, all the interesting fighting takes place between Van Damme and various henchmen about mid-way through the film. Many of these scenes were fairly realistic and well executed. Unfortunately, when Van Damme confronts the main villain, he forgets all the skills he displayed earlier, and behaves like someone who knows zip about what he is doing. The same pattern is repeated in their final confrontation. Basically both fights are pure Hollywood and a considerable waste of the audience's time.
I also should mention that the dialog is not very good, and many scenes are mis-directed, although production values are higher than in most low-budget films.
It is unfortunate that CYBORG is not better than it is, since it may sink Van Damme's career. Overall, CYBORG comes in as a low (-1) or high (-2). The squeamish are reminded that although CYBORG is not a "splatter" film, it is "R" rated for a reason, and it is fairly violent.
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