Movies-TV

It ain't "Blade Runner" but it ain't half bad

Since the same esteemed gentleman who wrote the screenplay for the legendary "Blade Runner" also wrote "Soldier", it has an impressive man at the helm. It functions well as another variation upon the time-honoured science-fiction theme of the human bred for combat from the womb and when they take that away from that individual, how do they survive with no discipline and no hierarchy to give orders. Kurt Russell gives an admirable performance as Todd and you throw in the late Jon Pertwee's son Sean as the man who takes him into the encampment where Todd soon finds a new reason for living. Connie Nielsen is radiantly beautiful and a strong female presence as the heroine/widow/concerned mother.The pervasive stench of mediocrity which surrounds all of this feel-good, emotional rollercoaster, uplifting drivel that we are spoon fed makes it all the more worthwhile when a film like "Soldier" takes you on a futuristic adventure of even a marginal sort.Connie Nielsen is radiantly beautiful and also a strong female heroine/concerned mother. True, the film breaks no new ground and one can almost see the join marks from where it was cobbled together from a number of classic science fiction themes of when man's future foray into space colonization. It is refreshing for a long-time science fiction fan such as myself, however, to see a film that tries to be bold and expansive in this era of mediocrity and feel-good romantic emotional rollercoaster drivel that people lap up.

Well, I liked it

OK, so Soldier isn't deep and meaningful like Blade Runner or as big budget as Terminator 2 but on the whole I found it quite enjoyable.The fact that Kurt Russell stayed in character not speaking and being virtually emotionless made the moments when his humanity broke through all the more poignant. I found his portrayal of restricted emotional development more touching than Arnie's in the T films (and before I get comments yes I know that Arnie was a cyborg and Kurt was human but the premise put forward by both films was the same).So to the film itself, a reasonable US/Brit cast are able to flesh out this little story. Not really sure if Gary Busey and his two deputies were baddies or goodies, so was unable to decide whether I liked them or not. The colony was a little more realistic neither a misguided bunch of peace loving/gullible/cowardly hicks who get wiped out from the get go nor a group of subversive aggressive terrorists paranoid about offworlders and each other.Kurt Russell is good and unlike other comments I do not feel this will have a negative impact on his career (unlike maybe Escape from LA - sequels are such fickle creatures!). Sean Pertwee has really done his late father proud by continuing the families noble Sci-Fi lineage. And the rest of the cast helped flesh out this pathetic band of people making the most of a bad situation and not doing too badly.If you see this on your TV schedule I would recommend giving it a chance. I don't think you will be disappointed.

A Russell-Anderson Love Fest, Otherwise Not Good

Kurt Russell stars as Todd, a soldier who was trained since birth to be the ultimate fighting machine. That is, until one day where he becomes "obsolete" and is replaced by a new breed. Then he is dumped on to a garbage planet, left to die. Fortunately for Todd, the planet has civilization there. Unfortunately for his old bosses, they want to take over this planet and are about to find out what antiques can do! I have to say it up front: "Soldier" is not a good film. It's not one of Russell's better films or one of Paul Anderson's better films. Some of it is very good (the first ten minutes where Todd is being trained as a child is awesome) but most of it is just campy. All the references to Russell's past films is a nice touch, but tells you how non-serious this is supposed to be. And as a film that takes place in the "Blade Runner" universe, it's a pretty inferior partner to that legendary film (Paul Anderson is not Ridley Scott).The pacing is also very strange in this one. We have Todd becoming part of a community, and I think this is shown fairly well (even if the performance is wooden). The battle scenes are also pretty decent, which is good since that's a large part of the movie. But the transition is choppy. Todd is thrown out of the community for risking a child's life, and we should expect a good twenty minutes of him wandering on his own and the community contemplating his absence. Instead, in under five minutes, they realize their mistake, find him and bring him back. Which, to me, makes the entire part completely pointless. It would have been better to show a montage of Todd instructing the child how to fight snakes (not unlike the montage in "Over the Top" with father and son exercising).If you love Kurt Russell, you'll like this film (it's not as cheesy as "Escape From LA", at least, and I still like that one). If you like Anderson, you may also like this (though, this is likely his weakest film of all). It was pushed on me by a questionable group of young men, so I can't really speak all that highly of it (even if the young men are fine gentlemen). Consider my summary thus: "Soldier" is watchable, but disposable.

Forever War taken one step further

Sargent Todd (Kurt Russel) never had a life of his own, till he was tossed out with the space garbage because they thought he was dead...being alone is not a handicap for a one man army like Todd as long as fighting is involved, its all that other stuff that can be painful. Good action, the opening training and battle sequences are wonderful, and when it suddenly switches to lasers and spacesuits instead of fatigues, you get that Forever War feeling. All's well that ends with a nuke, must have for Kurt Russel fans and Those Who Can Never Go Home Again. I'm rooting for a sequel.

One better then starship troopers.

This is quite a good Science-Fiction warfare story. The only thing that is lacking is the cast. Kurt Russel does a good job as an emotionally retarded professionel soldier who discovers that he can feel something after all and Garey Busey amakes a fine officer with a total lack of perception, but the band of Galactic refugees that becomes the target of a groop experimental, genetically enhanced warriors is pityful at best. In the end I sort of wished that the soldiers had managed to wipe them out. It wouldn't have been a great loss. Still this is a fast-paced, action-packed movie with great special effects. Relatively short by today's standards it prefents the sense of Deja vu, that movies like True Lies and Speed gave me, when the last fifteen minutes where not much more then a repeat performance of the rest of the movie. Soldier has a nicely balanced plot, that ends when there is nothing more to say. What I liked especially is that Russel never makes a moral judgement. In most stories a reformed killer suddenly becomes a moral philosofer condemning everybody who swaps a musquito. Not Russel's Sergeant Todd. Even in the end, when his enemies are busy exterminating a group of civilians Todd defends their actions, saying that they have to obey orders, likes he used to do. This far more realistic, considering his upbringing, then expecting him to suddenly turn pacifist. That he manages, despite this escential coldblooded attitude to convey a sense of emotion for the people he is protecting is a great tribute to Russel's acting ability. On the whole, a great movie to watch and a lot more interesting then Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, which is half again as long, but has a lot less to tell the audience.

A very emotional action film! My mom was in tears!

As far as memorable action movies come, I have extremely hard time forgetting Curt Russell's Soldier. The premise of Soldier is great. It is about a ice-human killing machine who wants to feel. But unlike other people Todd (Russell) grew up under millitary control that brainwashed him to be nothing more but a killer. It is hard journey for Todd, he has to become human and in the process he will kick some serious butt.

I'm going to enjoy trashing this

Awful. Worse than awful. Watching this garbage is bad for your health. Surely the word "acting" cannot have meant anything to anybody involved with this flushable poo.If you're going to watch it for the special effects don't bother. They are as pathetic as the director. It had Gary Busey in and was still utterly pathetic. Put it this way, if you worked on the film, you wouldn't put it on your CV, you wouldn't even mention it to relatives, or you'd be known as "that guy who helped make Soldier".I wont even bother trying to explain the story to you, just don't go near it. If you see it in a video shop, hide it so some uneducated fool doesn't pick it up by mistake and proclaim it the best film in the world thus making this Earth a little more dumber.

Good acting, but poor scientific verisimilitude

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SOLDIER is very good praxeological ("soft") speculative fiction in that it employs thoughtful extrapolation of sociological and psychological trends to establish the premises upon which it is based. What's more, anyone who decries Kurt Russell's work in this film betrays an ignorance of acting and a lack of good taste that fits the silly booger perfectly for a career as a newspaper movie critic. More punishing insult I cannot possibly offer.

The problem with this movie is that there are aspects of the production that beat the living hell out of us "hard" science fiction fen. Back in 1969, in his essay "Science Fiction: its nature, faults and virtues" (*The Science Fiction Novel*), Robert A. Heinlein made the following comment on the genre:

"A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method.

"To make this definition cover all science fiction (instead of 'almost all') it is necessary only to strike out the word 'future.'"

In 1981, Heinlein followed up in "Ray Guns and Space Ships" (*Expanded Universe*) with:

"Science Fiction is speculative fiction in which the author takes as his first postulate the real world as we know it, including all established facts and natural laws. The result can be extremely fantastic in content, but it is not fantasy; it is legitimate -- and often very tightly reasoned -- speculation about the possibilities of the real world. This category excludes rocket ships that make U-turns, serpent men of Neptune that lust after human maidens, and stories by authors who flunked their Boy Scout merit badge tests in descriptive astronomy."

And that last particularly sums up the true science fiction fan's problems with SOLDIER. Posit a spacegoing civilization and tell me, please, that they would ever bother going through the expense (economic as well as thermodynamic) and bother of hauling refined metal and other salvagable scrap materials out of one gravity well and then carelessly dumping the stuff on the surface of a planet somewhere else (i.e., at the bottom of yet *ANOTHER* gravity well). Even if they were planning future colonization of that windy mudball, anyone but a mundane (or a dimwitted fan of "soft" sci-fi) would know that all that junk could be more efficiently and cost-effectively used in a microgravity environment (in other words: up in orbit) as raw materials for any contemplated new manufactures. Once you've achieved the technology necessary for spaceflight, it's simply easier and less costly to make most rough and finished goods in space than on a planetary surface. That's true today, and cannot be otherwise in the future.

The whole of this idiocy is summed up by the director's use of a particularly gormless background image: a bloody great aircraft carrier flopped over on its port side (apparently the *USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt* -- like you couldn't set the damned thing down on its keel?) with the island superstructure sticking up at a 45-degree angle. Yeesh.

SOLDIER is an entertaining movie, and I extoll Kurt Russell's work in this film. He is generally quite horribly underappreciated as an actor, and his professionalism -- here as elsewhere -- is beyond reproach. This having been said, would it have killed the silly sonsabitches responsible for the production values in SOLDIER to have gotten input from some people who understand "established facts and natural laws" and who aren't (like writer David Webb Peoples, director Paul W.S. Anderson, and production designer David L. Sawyer) total and absolute mundane cement-heads?

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Note: One of the earlier reviewers mentioned that SOLDIER is set in the same plenum as the inappropriately-titled 1982 movie BLADE RUNNER (drawn, like so many of the past two decades' ghodawful dimwitted "skiffy" flicks, from the work of hack SF writer Philip K. Dick [1928-1982], who is the unspeakably mundane Modern Language Association's present-day darling, his signal claim to fame being a Hugo Award given for THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE [1963], and who has been for the most part largely -- and rightfully -- ignored by hard science fiction fen). The reviewer's surmise is incorrect, as there are also in-joke references to a bunch of other sci-fi movies, including Russell's own ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and the Star Trek film THE WRATH OF KHAN.

"Soldier" Rocked!

Hey now...I went in with low expectations, and got better than I expected. With lines like "I am going to kill them all, sir.", it's not a poetic powerhouse, but rather a testosterone-filled jaunt into the fantasy-military future. Kurt was BUFFED. My wife and I both enjoyed this fact...and I've been following Kurt Russell since I was a Creamsicle-suckin' punk, glued to the Disney features (e.g. The World's Strongest Man, GO Dexter Riley!). He was effective as an actor with few lines who "said" plenty. This very afternoon, I'm dragging a couple of friends to see a matinee as a matter of fact. That'll be twice. I expect to like it at least that much.T.

Real Sci-Fi fans should enjoy this show

Being a total sci-fi freak, I enjoyed the movie very much. I do not believe this was Kurt Russell's best acting to date. Though if you have followed his career since he was with Disney, you should have found the most of the characters he portrays are believable.To those of you who like a decent science fiction thriller with lots of action, explosions and not bad special effects, you should enjoy this show.If you don't enjoy this kind of show you should probably take in the ballet. It should be more suited to your taste.

Far better than you may have heard

Boy, I'm sure glad I watched this movie _before_ I found out I wasn't supposed to like it. I don't understand the disappointment; this is a well-made and satisfying movie.

I've said before that Kurt Russell is an extremely underrated actor, and he proves it again here. This is a demanding role.

Sgt. Todd is a genetically-engineered supersoldier, indoctrinated from birth as part of something called the 'Adam Project'. A seasoned combat veteran, Todd is a highly trained killing machine who has never known any other way of life.

Yet during the movie, we're supposed to gather that he's starting to feel some 'normal' human emotions and having trouble reconciling his past with his present. Somehow Todd has to put all this across to the audience with a bare minimum of dialogue and an absolutely flat-affect delivery -- rather like Arnold in the _Terminator_ films, with the difference that Todd is _not_ a cyborg or robot, but a human being with a deep inner life that he doesn't know how to express.

I don't know who could have played the part other than Russell. I can't think of another actor who could manage to convey so much with an expressionless face and _also_ be believable as a pumped-up supersoldier. (And Russell is seriously pumped up for this film.)

The story is well-crafted, too. Written by David Webb Peoples, one of the screenwriters on _Blade Runner_, this film is conceived as something of a sequel to that one and partakes of its darkness and moral ambiguity. But for all that, it zips along nicely under Paul Anderson's direction (despite some overuse of slo-mo).

Oh, there's some derivative stuff that we can charitably regard as 'homage' if we like. There's a very heavy nod toward _First Blood_ (and in general a strong evocation of the U.S.'s treatment of Vietnam veterans). And certainly this supersoldier thing has been done before (although _Universal Soldier_, _RoboCop_, and _The Six Million Dollar Man_ were cyborgs rather than genetically engineered Uebermenschen). That just means we're dealing with a very good B movie rather than something breathtakingly new.

Some viewers have suggested that Jason Scott Lee isn't very effectively used in this film. I disagree; I think he's downright fearsome in his single-minded lethality. (As you'll learn in the first few minutes of the film, he's one of a team of _super_-supersoldiers that are supposed to render Sgt. Todd and his guys obsolete.)

The SF backdrop is interesting and unforced although not terribly well fleshed out. All I can say without spoiling things is that there's a planet in the Arcadia sector that Earth is using as a junkyard, and that there's a human society living on it that nobody on Earth knows about.

The rest of the cast does well (including Michael Chiklis). Watch especially for a nice job by Gary Busey. You'll probably also like the Joel McNeely score, which doesn't break any new ground (and certainly doesn't hoist the film to the stratosphere as David Arnold's does _Stargate_) but nevertheless does its job adequately.

Oh -- and don't forget to be awed by the hauntingly gorgeous piece of music in Scene 11. It's 'Night Ride Across the Caucasus' by Loreena McKennitt and it's on her CD _The Book of Secrets_.

This movie rocked!!

Unlike the majority of the folks writing here, I really enjoyed this movie. It's a guy flick. Action, smack-talk ( in this case mostly through the actions/in-actions of Russel's character) and special effects. If you want great acting, go watch the latest Meryl Streep movie. I just don't understand people who go to a movie such as Soldier expecting to be overwhelmed by Oscar quality performances. These movies are made to be escapes from the usual humdrum not thought provoking masterpieces. Chill out and enjoy the mayhem.

For some, A Movie 2 See

Possible Spoiler(for the 2 people who haven't seen it)First off, I like this movie. I don't know why, I just do. The acting to me was ok, until the dump planet(since we humans love to make trash). To me the people seemed too melodramatic. Don't rag on me for that I just think that.The parts to watch are the begining, and the end. Right after Todd is dumped onto the planet is where I thought Mad Max. A desolate world, HELLO! When those kids find him, I was like Oh No. Mad Max 3? Anyway, Todd is taken in, he does some stuff, almost kills someone, and is kicked out. Then the geneticaly enhanced soldiers shows up to kick some serious ass, and so does Todd.The shooting scene is good, but nothing(in any movie) compaired to Al Pacino, Robert De Niro in Heat. Anyway, I like the idea of the dead guy in the scrap heap, a good touch. So was throwing Colonel D***head out of the ship(who didn't want to see that happen?).This is a good movie for a Saturday nite moviefest, just make it your 3rd or 4th movie to watch.

SOLDIER

I really loved this story! Each actor played his role perfectly and the filming and special effects were outstanding.

enjoyed film content and acting

both plot and sub plot good. Russell is best in this type of role-heroic yet vulnerable.Enjoyed heroes part in overcoming brainwashing to reveal real person with feelings below.Russells facial nuances in carrot cutting scene were on the mark.would like to see sequel-continuation of learning to become human-expand on relations w/female actor-surviving trials on new planet-succeeding in establishing successful family/community.

Seen it all before.

Effects are a bit ropey - the CGI doesn't blend in with the rest of the scenery too well. Kurt Russell almost says less than Arnie in the original Terminator. Acting's not too clever either. Ho hum.

Got slammed in the box office but not THAT bad.

I remember this movie. I don't think it topped the 30 million mark for domestic gross. I though that was unfair. Marketing had to do with it more than anything. The movie is not great but it isn't bad either. Sure it has some cheesy moments and some ridiculous dialogue. Very stupid at times too.

Well let's get on with the review. Special FX: This is where it shines and also has problems. The quality of the FX fluctuate. Some scenes are so well done. The sets are on the whole beautiful, the wind scenes are done as good as they can be. It's the several moments that just cut right into the big picture. (any space scene with a spaceship, or any scene with a moving projectile) The matte painting, sets are very well done but some scenes just look too fake.

Plot: Okay so what do you expect from an action flick. Plot will rarely score points. It is the predictability and cliches that actually take this movie down. You can guess every twist and turn. At least you won't be surprised.

Acting: Again in an action flick this takes a back seat. There isn't any acting that stands out to be "BAD". And you are not going to expect any "GREAT" acting either. Kurt russell doesn't speak much. It isn't his fault. It's the character.

ETC aspects: I really don't have anything else to pick on except the unnecessary gore at times.

Okay final verdict. This is a viewable movie. I guess I wouldn't buy it because you would be able to watch it 3 times max. Bet renting it won't be too bad. 3.5 stars. Again I think it should have earned at least 40million domestic. Too bad it just collapsed. It wasn't THAT bad. Just one of those watchable films on some evening you have nothing else to do.

If you like Snake Plissken, you'll probably like 'Soldier'

Sure, this movie isn't the greatest action flick, and it isn't very original in most anything it attempts. It doesn't have the deepest plot, or the best dialogue, or any stellar acting. It does allow fans of Russell, though, to see how many different ways he can play a bad guy.

A fantastic "Kurt's Buff & Bad to the Bone" movie!

Was it Einstein who said, "What you see depends on your point of view"?
Well, see this movie for what it is and judge it on its own merit..a great spotlight on Buff & Bad Kurt Russell and a showcase for his acting strengths...and you'll find it to be fantastic! Few other actors communicate as well as Kurt Russell can in the absence of dialogue. Few actors are as engaging to follow in both action sequences and plot development interactions.

Enjoyable, but don't expect too much.

This movie is OK. It wasn't bad, the story was coherent, the plot was clear and thought-provoking, the action was exciting enough, the fight scenes were credible, and Kurt Russell and Jason Scott Lee acted well. It's not a must-see like Terminator 2. This is the kind of movie you'd just like to sit back, enjoy and finish.The theme is not original. It's a combination of Universal Soldier 2 (the original vs. the improved version), Gattaca (power of the human spirit), Terminator 2 (killing machine learning to care) and a classic Kung Fu movie (hero gets beaten intially). It's the total concept from this combination and the development of the storyline that gives it a unique appeal -- the inhuman way Todd and his fellow soldiers were raised and trained, their battles, Todd's defeat in the hands of Kane, the settler's rescue of Todd, his life with them and of course, his defense of the settlement and eventual revenge on the bad guys.Kurt Russell acts well as a soldier devoid of emotion. Most of the time it's just his eyes doing the acting. He speaks volumes with that blank stare of his. During the sparse moments he's actually allowed to speak, he gives the voice a blind, subservient, yet non-robotic quality.Plus of course the final confrontation between Todd and Kane features a pleasant twist to an expected outcome.On the down side, the effects are run-of-the-mill B-movie type ones. But since it's not the main focus of the story, it's acceptable, unlike action spectaculars by bigger action stars which tend to lose focus because of the effects and gadgetry.