I first heard about the movie Hardware on a Necromunda blog somewhere as it was referenced for it’s dystopian, post-apocalyptic wasteland setting. Being the nerd I am, I immediately went out and found a copy of it, but then didn’t get around to watching it for quite some time. Finally, yesterday, I had a chance to sit down and watch it, while cleaning up some Terminators for my Blood Angels Warhammer 40K army.

This movie has some fantastic shots of a destroyed environment, very Mad Max, but where it really comes to life is in the total cyberpunk feel of the costuming and interior environments. The main character has a bionic hand that’s not all flashy and lifelike, instead it’s more of an oversized glove, possibly a homage to the Nintendo Powerglove. Once we meet the cyborg/robot/killing machine, the scifi thriller aspect of the movie really kicks in to take us on a wild ride of gratuitous violence and edge of your seat tension. A lot of iconic shots that are very reminiscent of other scifi movies, such as a sudden robotic hand grabbing someone, or the robot’s face moving in extremely close to the protagonist’s cheek, which don’t feel like rip offs, more like strong nods to some of the greats. Oh, and there’s a really creepy scene involving a voyeur, a video phone call, and some not hot at all dirty talk.

Overall, I must admit that I was far more impressed with this movie than I’d ever anticipated being. In the end, I’d have to say it’s a pretty even combination of Terminator, Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Mad Max, which are three awesome movies to be in league with.

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