Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
The Ultimate Hard Drive
People been making a big deal about that Cyberpunk game (maybe) coming out at some time. Or, as is more often the case, people making a big deal about it not being out. Well, the genre has been around for an amazing time - I mean, the Shadowrun RPGs have totally been a thing - and heavens knows what books are out there since I’m not a huge book intake (and most the books I did read were more typical Fantasy). So I thought we’d flip back to when our favorite guy who knows Kung Fu first jacked his brain into some fancy wetwear - tonight, we dive into Johnny Mnemonic.
A scrawl fills us in to the state of the world - corporations rule the world, technology is saturating the world and a new virus has sprung up affecting the nervous system. Some folks have decided to stick it to the man, and become their own little faction. Some people get augments to be information couriers - specifically, using their brain as a storage device for potentially shady transfers. Enter the movie proper, where our lead is such a guy. His agent sort of throws him under the bus, setting him up with a job to deliver way more data then he’s actually safely capable of doing (double, really). His clients fill us in on the fact of the side effects of doing so without actually knowing this truth (although surely suspecting it) - like having your brain pop and no longer being in the land of the living. Right after the deal goes down however, a hit squad takes out the clients and the password images get destroyed, and now he’s got to go and find a way to get the information out of his head before it’s too late.
The story is there, allowing for a little mystery and a lot of conflict, all while tapping into that one thing that movies of the past always seem to get right - the corruption of corporations and profit being the bottom line. You’ll get plenty of spots where things might seem to go a little crazy - but it all feels rooted into the universe with all these cybernetic augments. There’s also a good mix of characters to help support the drama-based elements of the story. Perhaps a bad guy isn’t actually all that bad a guy, they just don’t have all the facts. Perhaps the bad guy is actually just crazy. Perhaps a good guy isn’t as crazy as they seem. It’s a good mix too, given the low tech faction shying away from all the augments all the way over to the religious assassin whose practically more machine then man.
Actors do a good job too. You could argue that some of the acting isn’t show stoppers, and I wouldn’t argue with you over it - it doesn’t exactly feel like some high-budget Shakespearean play with only the finest of thespians. That said, it’s perfectly acceptable at feeling mediocre at worst- and I can live with that. As mentioned, there’s a wide range of characters that lend themselves one way or the other for the actors as well - super religious assassin man-droid nails his part pretty well, despite the fact you could say he’s a bit over-dramatic as a character. Perhaps a few characters are a bit one-note, mostly in terms of the bad guys or miscellaneous side characters. The only person to really get a focus on arc is the main, but as a side effect the head villain (although I hesitate to call him the main villain since other characters would fit that bill better) also gets to go through a little mini-arc that makes sense for his character.
The deal going down.
The effects department has a lot to do here. We have the low tech faction looking a bit like they come from a post-apocalypse movie with some tech binoculars and the likes. You get the Yakuza, with their classic bad guys black outfits or occasional doctor-like outfit. Of course, our religious assassin is wearing classic priestly or monk like robes, doing his best to look like cyber Jesus without showing any of the cyber. Our main lady wears a chainmail-style shirt, and weather intentional or not I immediately recognized that frizzy haired lass as none other then Dizz from Starship Troopers. Our main dude is running around in a suit the entire time, which believe it or not sets him visually apart from pretty near every single person he interacts with. All of that difference, and that’s only just the costumes - never mind the fine details on them such as tattoos on the low tech group or prop-like cybernetic hands.
Speaking of props, those are also pretty good. There’s a few moments where something might be an obvious mannequin, but things look like they belong - even the dolphin. Guns look a bit hodge-podge at times, but considering the crossbows also in use it might be more an issue of contrast making them look such. It’s not just all physical props though - there’s a bunch of graphical work in here and other effects work going on. Unfortunately, not all of it has aged well. That shiny energy-looking monofilament wire the bad guy uses? Looks good. The diving into the computer or internet scenes? Pretty dated. On the one hand, it still at times looks really cool despite looking dated, but other times it’s just a bit of a time capsule as to how things used to look before they got so good despite people taking it for granted.
Audio is balanced well. Actor deliveries are normally pretty good, even with any of the ruckus in the background going on. None of the music really stuck in my head, but it did all feel like it fit, and a track or two had some good percussion to it that made me slightly reminisce about The Terminator despite not really sounding like it. The audio effects sound good, and it’s pretty well put together and things just sound like you would think they should sound during any given scene. I will point out here however, the movie does do quite a bit of flashing - which might be a problem for some people.
Sometimes computers get outdated.
It’s a neat little movie. Sure, it can feel sort of dated at times but it’s enjoyable. It has plenty of moments that can leave you thinking how much a touch up could effect it, and it’s always fun to see how older times saw technology in the future. Acting is decent, colors are good, and as a whole it’s a solid enough movie to be called mediocre at worst.