Cyborg starts in plague ridden post apocalyptic 'New York City In The Future' where martial arts expert for hire Gibson Rickenbacker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) rescues & then promptly loses again a cyborg woman named Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon) to a marauding gang of bandits lead by Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn), Pearl claims she has been sent by a group of doctors to gather vital information about a cure for the plague & it is imperative for humanity that she returns safely with that information. A woman named Nady (Deborah Richter) convinces Gibson to rescue Pearl & potentially help save the human race from extinction...
Directed by Albert Pyun Cyborg was his breakthrough film, he has since gone on to make dozens of awful sci-fi horror type films & is probably one of the worst genre director's ever right down there with Jim Wynorski & Jesus 'I have no talent' Franco. One of the first things that stands out about Cyborg is that it stars a young looking JCVD, while this was released the same year as Kickboxer (1989) it was that film which basically made JCVD a star & not Cyborg so I guess that's one less thing to hate it for. The script by Kitty Chalmers is a sort of post apocalyptic action film that takes itself very seriously & is almost totally devoid of any sort of meaningful story. Cyborg is one of the most threadbare excuses of a film I've seen in a while, the story revolves around the whole clichéd post apocalyptic scenario where the world is in ruins, there are few survivors, there are large groups of bandits & scavengers who kill & steal & of course there's the lone hero, the man who does what's right in a world gone to hell & yes you've guessed it he has even suffered from some kind of personal loss! Wow, I'm not being funny here but Cyborg leaves no post apocalyptic clichéd unused, from abandoned buildings, run down towns, dirty futuristic costumes & one mans fight against evil. We've seen it all before & done much, much better. Just watch one of the Mad Max trilogy as they are all far superior to this, the character's are poor with little or no motivation or background, there's barely any dialogue in it & what little story it tries to tell is shown through a collection of badly edited flashbacks littered throughout the film's scant 80 odd minute duration & even at only 80 minutes it felt much longer which is not a good sign.
Director Pyun has made a career from making low budget crap & guess what? Cyborg pretty much proves he started out making low budget crap because it's, well, low budget crap (the weapon of choice in the future is a paint-ball gun!). All the sets look really cheap, the locations don't look post apocalyptic either, they look exactly like what they are an abandoned factory, some woods & a rundown building! The action scenes are not that great, the editing is very choppy although I suspect that many of the more violent scenes were cut & according to the IMDb's 'Alternate Versions' section for Cyborg that appears to be very much the case. The special effects aren't too bad, there's some OK matte paintings & some alright cyborg robotics effects as well. Cyborg was the film which finally bankrupt the infamous Cannon Films run by Yoram Globus & Menahem Golan as it was their last theatrically released film. Apparently Cyborg was written with the intent to use the sets & costumes that had been made for the planned Masters of the Universe (1987) sequel & a live-action Spider-Man film which were both canned after Cannon Films suffered financial problems & Cyborg was written & made to utilise the money already spent.
With a supposed budget of about $1,800,000 Cyborg looks really cheap on too many occasions, it's competent but pretty bland & lifeless. The acting isn't up to much not that anyone is given much to do because of the very sparse script, JCVD is no better or worse than usual, Vincent Klyn who was apparently recognised as one of the worlds best surfers in the 80's has gone on to appear in eleven other Albert Pyun films which says how much of a career he has had since this.
Cyborg is an average post apocalyptic action film, it's watchable on a dumb level & there are one or two good moments but the story is so poor & the set-pieces aren't that great so overall I didn't hate it but I didn't really like it either. Followed by the unconnected Cyborg 2 (1993) & Cyborg 3: The Recycler (1994).
Directed by Albert Pyun Cyborg was his breakthrough film, he has since gone on to make dozens of awful sci-fi horror type films & is probably one of the worst genre director's ever right down there with Jim Wynorski & Jesus 'I have no talent' Franco. One of the first things that stands out about Cyborg is that it stars a young looking JCVD, while this was released the same year as Kickboxer (1989) it was that film which basically made JCVD a star & not Cyborg so I guess that's one less thing to hate it for. The script by Kitty Chalmers is a sort of post apocalyptic action film that takes itself very seriously & is almost totally devoid of any sort of meaningful story. Cyborg is one of the most threadbare excuses of a film I've seen in a while, the story revolves around the whole clichéd post apocalyptic scenario where the world is in ruins, there are few survivors, there are large groups of bandits & scavengers who kill & steal & of course there's the lone hero, the man who does what's right in a world gone to hell & yes you've guessed it he has even suffered from some kind of personal loss! Wow, I'm not being funny here but Cyborg leaves no post apocalyptic clichéd unused, from abandoned buildings, run down towns, dirty futuristic costumes & one mans fight against evil. We've seen it all before & done much, much better. Just watch one of the Mad Max trilogy as they are all far superior to this, the character's are poor with little or no motivation or background, there's barely any dialogue in it & what little story it tries to tell is shown through a collection of badly edited flashbacks littered throughout the film's scant 80 odd minute duration & even at only 80 minutes it felt much longer which is not a good sign.
Director Pyun has made a career from making low budget crap & guess what? Cyborg pretty much proves he started out making low budget crap because it's, well, low budget crap (the weapon of choice in the future is a paint-ball gun!). All the sets look really cheap, the locations don't look post apocalyptic either, they look exactly like what they are an abandoned factory, some woods & a rundown building! The action scenes are not that great, the editing is very choppy although I suspect that many of the more violent scenes were cut & according to the IMDb's 'Alternate Versions' section for Cyborg that appears to be very much the case. The special effects aren't too bad, there's some OK matte paintings & some alright cyborg robotics effects as well. Cyborg was the film which finally bankrupt the infamous Cannon Films run by Yoram Globus & Menahem Golan as it was their last theatrically released film. Apparently Cyborg was written with the intent to use the sets & costumes that had been made for the planned Masters of the Universe (1987) sequel & a live-action Spider-Man film which were both canned after Cannon Films suffered financial problems & Cyborg was written & made to utilise the money already spent.
With a supposed budget of about $1,800,000 Cyborg looks really cheap on too many occasions, it's competent but pretty bland & lifeless. The acting isn't up to much not that anyone is given much to do because of the very sparse script, JCVD is no better or worse than usual, Vincent Klyn who was apparently recognised as one of the worlds best surfers in the 80's has gone on to appear in eleven other Albert Pyun films which says how much of a career he has had since this.
Cyborg is an average post apocalyptic action film, it's watchable on a dumb level & there are one or two good moments but the story is so poor & the set-pieces aren't that great so overall I didn't hate it but I didn't really like it either. Followed by the unconnected Cyborg 2 (1993) & Cyborg 3: The Recycler (1994).