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theory

Cyborg (1989): Is it accidentally brilliant?

Okay, so I just re-watched "Cyborg" (1989) and I'm not gonna lie, it's a mess. A glorious mess, but a mess nonetheless. The plot's paper thin: Van Damme kicks people, Kurtz gets angry, and some girl is important for... reasons. The dialogue is atrocious, and the production value looks like they filmed it in a particularly grim back alley after a rainstorm. But hear me out, I think there's something weirdly fascinating lurking beneath the surface, something almost... theoretical. My theory is that "Cyborg," unintentionally, acts as a bizarre post-structuralist text. Think about it: the film is constantly deconstructing its own genre. It posits a dystopian future but offers no coherent social commentary beyond "things are bad." The characters are less "characters" and more bundles of recycled action movie tropes. Even Van Damme, playing Gibson Rickenbacker (yes, really), is almost a parody of himself, all furrowed brows and overly dramatic spinning kicks. It's like director Albert Pyun (or whoever was actually calling the shots) threw a bunch of genre cliches into a blender, hit liquefy, and then just filmed whatever came out. This inherent "wrong-ness" is what makes it so compelling. The film never fully commits to being a serious action flick, nor a campy B-movie spectacular. It exists in this weird liminal space, constantly undermining its own narrative logic. Take the crucifixion scene, for example. It's gratuitous and exploitative, sure, but it also feels like a meta-commentary on the ways action movies use violence and religious imagery for shock value. I'm almost convinced that Pyun was making a statement – he just didn't realize it himself. Maybe the bad acting and cheap effects just allowed that potential latent statement to be born. Look, I'm not saying "Cyborg" is some lost arthouse gem. It's still riddled with flaws. But I think there's more to it than just mindless violence. I genuinly think the film can be genuinely more rewarding on a thinking level than many more polished action movies. It's a film that's so bad, it accidentally stumbles into something approaching brilliance...or at least something worth dissecting. What do you guys think? Am I completely off base here, or is there a method to Pyun's madness (or lack thereof)?

jamesreviews
6 months ago
6 comments
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