1st person perspective in film has been around for a long time, since the fifties even. The cameras and techniques have changed over the years but it's been there. A lot of times its used as a found footage angle where a character has a camera to document all the events transpiring before them. Other films make the protagonist's eyes the camera, what they see is what the audience sees. The best use I have seen of 1st person perspective lately was in the remake of Joe Spinell's Maniac but even then at times the camera perspective would change back to a regular narrative. 1st Person perspective action wise has been mostly used for video games, with the closest film version that comes to mind being the sequence in the Doom film adaptation. Hardcore Henry from beginning to end is told as a 1st person narrative and does not sway in action or story as the insanity of this bizarre universe unfolds in front of Henry's eyes which are the eyes of the audience and he is as confused as we are at what begins to transpire. 
We begin with a memory of Henry as a child being bullied which devolves into his current state of life with the last thing we hear being his father berating him. Henry opens his eyes to see a beautiful young women putting him back together with robotic parts as we see Henry's body is missing limbs. She tells him he is very special and she loves him as she is his wife. Before she can finish him and put in his voice modulator, the facility is invaded by mercenaries led by a deranged man named Akan. For some reason Akan has strange powers that helps him levitate people and he begins slaughtering the scientists at the facility as Henry and his wife, Estelle make their escape. They get into an escape pod which jettisons out of the facility floating in the sky and lands them in Russia where an army of mercenaries await them. Estelle screams and begs Henry to use his full potential but he cannot process what's going on or understand his power yet. Estelle is kidnapped and Henry is thrown off a bridge into a parking lot where he is saved by a gun toting nut named Jimmy. Jimmy claims he knows how to help Henry, fix him and stop Akan, but they must first make it back to his lab. Together Jimmy and Henry go on a blood soaked killing spree through Russia trying to piece Henry back together, find Estelle and stop Akan's plans to use Henry to build an unstoppable army. Only problem is Akan has spared no expense to arm his men with nothing less than tanks, flamethrowers and every explosive known to man. But it's okay because Jimmy has a little surprise of insanity for him and Henry to use around every corner! 
This is possibly one of the best times I've ever had watching an action movie and is one of the most original movies I have seen in years. The premise is simple but the extent of science fiction put into this world that you see makes it one of the most crazed unique experiences ever. The level of insanity on screen here is cranked to eleven and leaves you in stitches laughing at the joyful absurdity put before you. A good chunk of this insanity comes from Jimmy played by Sharlto Copley. He was a selling point on this movie for me because the man never plays the same character in any movie and most times plays the most memorable character. This is no exception. Here especially we see Jimmy change into different personas throughout the movie each more devilish than the last giving Copley an acting buffet. Whether it's smoking dope, blowing off faces, riding motorcycles or being at the ready with a mini gun, Jimmy has Henry's back for everything.
Surprisingly Henry himself has an evolution as a character. With no dialogue and pure action and hand gestures to tell his story we get a very thin but effective character throughout told in pieces of somewhat of who he is. The greatest pay off to this is by an actor who appears only twice in the film but delivers a small speech to Henry that is his motivation and driving force for the sweet and destructive end where he remembers the type of man he is! 
Now a lot of people are probably questioning the aesthetic. A lot of people couldn't handle the shakiness of Cloverfield back in the day. I myself had seen a music video director IIya Naishuller had done in the same style of which was a bit grainy and while fun was at times a little difficult to watch, however the proper technology in the hands of Naishuller makes for a masterfully shot action film that uses its "gimmick" full force to its advantage. There are maybe one or two sequences with choppy parts that may make some queasy but what you see before you is so well done and fun you probably won't remember you felt sick in the first place. The director doesn't use unnecessary filler either, skipping time it would take Henry to walk from point A to B and instead jumps right from A to B, which keeps the film at a brisk pace of story and action. 
The movie has gore beyond gore, and sci-fi moments every ten minutes plus I kid you not a hilarious musical number! My only two complaints are you never really know why Akon has super powers, you just kind of roll with it and there's one scene that for the first five seconds of it is so blatantly CGI you feel like you're straight up watching a video game cinematic. Such small things followed by sheer cinematic debauchery you forget about them so quickly and can't take the smile off your face. The ending is something of such amazingly dark humor that leaves you laughing well into the credits that I want to shake the director's hand and simply say well done sir! I cannot wait to see the rest of Naishuller's career! Five body parts out of five!
