Cyborg 2

A prologue establishes the setting: it's 2074, and the world is enmeshed in violent corporate warfare between Kobayashi and Pinwheel Robotics for control of the lucrative production of cyborgs, which have replaced humans in nearly every profession. In top-of-the-line model Casella Reese (Angelina Jolie), Pinwheel boss Martin Dunn (Allen Garfield) has developed the "perfect thinking machine, the cutting edge of counter-espionage technology in a humanoid robotics application," equipped with a liquid explosive called "glass shadow" freely circulating through her body. It can be detonated at any time, especially cunningly during sexual orgasm. The complication: Reese has fallen in love with her human martial arts instructor, Colt Ricks (Elias Koteas).

The pair are informed by computer-system interloper Mercy (Jack Palance)--a former naval commander, wounded and rebuilt with cyborg parts and now a mercenary renegade bent on revenge against Pinwheel for the death of his wife--of her upcoming assignment to assassinate the head of Kobayashi. Mercy hatches a plan to get Colt and Reese safely off to Mombasa, "the only free zone for unlicensed cyborgs," and the pair begin their escape from the labyrinthine city. Dunn sends Raven Chen (Karen Sheperd) and demented cyborg tracker Daniel Bench (Billy Drago). Skirmishing with Chen and Bench all the way, Reese and Colt, guided via TV monitors by Mercy, work their way through Wild Card's (Tracey Walker) opium den and Bobby Lin's (Ric Young) nightclub to the docks, where they board a ship. Mercy shows up in person to ensure their departure, but is captured and brought to Dunn. Believing he's activating Reese's "glass shadow," Mercy explodes instead, and he and Dunn are consumed in the conflagration. The film cuts to Reese and Colt living happily in Mombasa, and a flash-forward fade-out finds Colt, now an old man, lovingly tended by the ageless Reese.

Despite an interesting premise and characters, CYBORG 2's screenplay gets bogged down into tired action-film conventions, and potentially splendid ideas--the nature of cyborg-human love (let alone sex) and Reese's clear superiority over Colt--are forgotten. However, director and co-screenwriter Michael Schroeder (OUT OF THE DARK, DEAD ON: RELENTLESS II) handles the violent action sequences with some verve, and for the budget, this is a rich-looking production, nicely designed by Elisabeth A. Scott as an imaginative blend of post-apocalypse ersatz (except for the coldly high-tech Pinwheel office complex) and BLADE RUNNER-type orientalesque urban blight, neatly captured in the dark but candy-colored cinematography by Jamie Thompson. The sole element marring this technical stylishness is a cheap-sounding synthesizer score by Peter Allen and a nondescript end-title tune sung by Chan. Apart from another over-the-top, eccentric villain jaunt by Billy Drago (SECRET GAMES, CHINA WHITE), the acting is solid, with newcomer Angelina Jolie wonderfully deadpan as the resourceful, curvaceous cyborg and Garfield witty as the CEO-from-hell corporate magnate. Veteran Jack Palance (who also reads the printed prologue crawl) spends much of the picture as a video-image set of eyes or toothy mouth, and clearly relishes his dialogue, a bizarre blend of lines from TV commercials, puns, song titles, zany aphorisms, and just plain nutty nonsense like "If you want to dine with the devil, you need a long spoon."

CYBORG 2 shares nothing except its vaguely post-apocalypse time setting with its predecessor CYBORG, the 1989 action vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme, although scenes from this film are incorporated early on, including a fleeting glimpse of the now superstar Van Damme. Unreleased theatrically, CYBORG 2 was shot in wide screen but was distributed on video in a pan-and-scan format. (Graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations, substance abuse, profanity.) leave a comment