I recall seeing this film when I was younger, during a time when movies like it were commonplace. Back then, stars like Stallone, Van Damme, and Schwarzenegger seemed invincible, regardless of their roles. We all aspired to be like them. Thankfully, nowadays actors are expected to possess acting abilities rather than just muscles and some martial arts skills. In fact, if this movie had been made today, it might even have achieved masterpiece status, comparable to post-apocalyptic films such as *Children of Men* and *The Road*. Let’s briefly examine the story, because there is a narrative hidden somewhere within. We find ourselves in The States, a world devastated by anarchy, genocide, starvation, and disease, with a population reduced to a bare minimum. However, scientists have discovered a cure—a cure that everyone desires, for better or worse. A cyborg named Pearl is sent into this shattered world to retrieve it, and at the film’s outset, we learn she has secured the cure and is returning it to her creators. A cyborg, as an aside, is someone who has been so extensively augmented with cybernetics that their humanity is questionable. Pearl is then captured by Fender, a deranged individual who also serves as our narrator, explaining his enjoyment of this new world. Gibs (played by Van Damme) briefly encounters the cyborg but is primarily focused on killing Fender. These two characters share a troubled history, which Gibs revisits through extended flashbacks throughout the movie. He was once responsible for escorting a small family to safety outside the city, but Fender intervened and attempted to kill them. Now, Fender has one of those children, a girl named Haley, among his group of pirates. Gibson is accompanied by another young woman, Nady. She’s interested in obtaining the cure, while Gibs shows little concern for it. They become unlikely companions, embarking on a lengthy journey toward Atlanta to confront Fender and Pearl—for revenge... and the cure. Along their way, they face numerous dangers before finally catching up with the pirates. *Cyborg* is a low-budget film that tries too hard. Just consider the opening scene in New York; subtlety would have been beneficial if the director had remembered that. If I could have turned off the soundtrack, I might have enjoyed the movie more, but unfortunately, music plays in almost every scene, with only a few exceptions—music intended to manipulate our emotions and prepare us for what’s coming. It's disappointing because it isn’t a beautiful score by Hans Zimmer. So why do I question whether this is a failure or a masterpiece? Perhaps the director intentionally cast subpar actors to convey something about humanity. Maybe he wanted us to believe that all humans in this future were somehow cyborgs, part man, part machine? Sadly, that's not the case; the director wants us to feel empathy for Gibs, Nady, Haley, and Pearl, and therefore portrays them as entirely human—a humanity their acting abilities can’t quite support. Ultimately, it isn’t a masterpiece but a significant disappointment: a film with a decent plot that fails to present it in a convincing manner. My only star goes to the two striking paintings of New York and Atlanta seen at the beginning and end of the movie. They are hauntingly beautiful, but regrettably, the rest of the film... is not.

Source on TMDB