In 2006, the world was graced with the presence of “Crank,” a frantic, cocaine-fueled action nightmare starring Jason Statham. It (and its 2009 sequel) are astounding pieces of cinema, milestones in self-aware, ironic art.

The main impression I got from “Hardcore Henry,” an exceptionally violent and vulgar action extravaganza presented entirely from a first-person perspective like a video game, is that whoever made it really liked “Crank” for the wrong reasons.

I realize how elitist it sounds to act like there are right and wrong ways to enjoy a movie, but I never got the impression that the team behind “Crank” genuinely thought it was cool when Statham had sex with his girlfriend in a public restaurant to keep his adrenaline pumping. It’s uncomfortably absurd, the kind of thing you can only cope with by giggling.

“Hardcore Henry,” meanwhile, attempts the same kind of mania while taking itself too seriously (more than zero percent) for it to work. It doesn’t try to pass itself off as high art by any means, but its handful of stabs at serious storytelling fall completely flat and its change in perspective proves pointless.

Like some of the video games from which it pulls inspiration, Henry is a silent, amnesiac cyborg protagonist with zero agency or motivation beyond wanting to save his wife. She’s been kidnapped by Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), a man with telekinetic powers (which are never explained) and breathtakingly bad hair who wants to take over the world with a cyborg army.

Acting ability is extra important in a film where every character is essentially delivering their lines in monologues toward the camera instead of having conversations with another actor. Kozlovsky’s performance as the villain is impressively wooden, and when paired with the substandard quality of the material he was given, every moment he’s in the frame is unbearable.

Sharlto Copley (who you may remember from “District 9”) gets by far the most time in front of the camera, playing a scientist who commands several clones of himself, each with a distinct appearance and personality. I’ve always found Copley charismatic, and this character has by far a more interesting story to tell than anything involving Henry.

But like a bad video game (again), Copley only serves to bark orders at and assist the empty cipher of a protagonist in his boring damsel-in-distress tale. The film’s best moments of self-aware ludicrousness involve Copley’s character (most notably, a musical number with his many clones), so to see him pushed aside in favor of nothingness-incarnate does the story a disservice.

They want us to care about Henry’s plight, but it’s tough because he isn’t really a character. When the wacky plot twist is revealed at the end, it’s ineffectual.

The film’s most significant accomplishment is proving that action from a first-person perspective isn’t especially exciting when you’re merely a spectator. They pull it off fairly well considering the impossibility of accurately replicating human eye movement, but in practice, it ends up being difficult to tell what’s going on most of the time.

It also can’t hang with something like “Crank” when it desperately tries to ascend to that level. The numerous shootouts are disappointingly tame compared to the scene in “Crank 2” when Statham has a Godzilla-esque fight in a cartoonish rubber costume of himself. 

Also, come on, setting a violent murder spree to a Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” may have been novel when “Shaun of the Dead” did it in 2004, but it’s just cringe worthy here. Push the envelope a little with your musical cues.

“Hardcore Henry” gets points for trying, I suppose, but I don’t think you’ll see a tidal wave of first-person action movies anytime soon. It’s too faithful to the storytelling of bad video games and doesn’t compete with its cinematic inspirations.