Subject: Review: Soldier (1998)

From: "Nathaniel R. Atcheson" <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 Oct 1998 05:44:31 GMT

Soldier (1998)

Director:  Paul Anderson
Cast:  Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Neilsen, Gary
Busey, Sean Pertwee, Danny Turner
Screenplay:  David Webb Peoples
Producers:  Jerry Weintraub
Runtime:  100 min.
US Distribution:  Warner Bros.
Rated R:  violence, language

By Nathaniel R. Atcheson ([email-masked])

From the director of Event Horizon comes Soldier, a bland and
uninspired action film, flowing with richly-textured cliches and a
soothingly sensual story with almost no originality whatsoever.  Paul
Anderson, whose last film is far superior to this one, unfortunately
forgot that action films need innovation to survive.  But Soldier,
penned by Blade Runner writer David Webb Peoples, merely begins with an
interesting idea and regresses quickly into a competently-made bore.  
Not even a mute Kurt Russell can inspire a glimpse life in the film.

The best moments are early on, when we meet our hero, Todd, as a young
boy.  He and other young males are forced to go through military
training that begins at birth and ends in the late teen years.  The
training is harsh and grueling, and enforces simple rules like "mercy is
for the weak."  The military breeds the boys to be emotionless killing
machines; this is one of the interesting ideas in the film, for most
movies about amoral monsters take the morally easy route by making the
monsters not quite human in some way (The Terminator comes to mind).  
That's about as far as the originality goes, for Todd (played by Russell
as an adult) and his fellow soldiers are soon replaced by bigger and
faster superhuman soldiers, genetically engineered by Colonel Mekum
(Jason Isaacs).  

Thought to be dead, Todd is dumped on the garbage planet of Arcadia
(you know it's bad when the planets have Star Wars-like themes); while
there, he meets a peaceful band of garbage people, the most prominent
members being Mace (Sean Pertwee), his beautiful wife Sandra (Connie
Neilsen), and their mute son.  Lucky for the film, the military decides
to test their new soldiers on Arcadia, assuming that no one lives there
(and certainly having no idea that Todd is still alive).  Todd,
naturally, becomes the only force capable of standing up against the
superhuman maniacs.  And he bonds with the mute kid.

And, unfortunately, there's not much else to say about it.  Soldier
isn't downright awful; Anderson, though clearly not at his best, is
incapable of making an ugly picture.  The special effects are good, and
the sets are nice (much of the garbage planet is convincingly done). 
The digital effects are also swell, and the action sequences are pretty
square.  The problem is that you, I, and everyone else has seen all of
this before.  Stuff explodes.  People die.  The hero wins.  I mean, come
on -- familiarity is okay, but Soldier is so familiar that it really
just strikes us as boring.

If there's anything interesting aside from the setup, it's the acting. 
Russell is always a watchable performer, and he plays Todd the way Todd
needs to be played -- silently, and with no emotion.  It's hard to say
whether or not Russell took the role seriously, because there isn't
enough characterization to show a significant change in whatever small
personality he has.  Backup performances from Neilsen and Pertwee both
exceed the quality of the material, while Jason Isaacs is mildly amusing
in his dreadfully cliched role (as the head military guy who refuses to
listen to reason).  

If I sound lost for words, that's because I am:  Soldier is a standard
action picture.  It's too loud to be considered serious science fiction
(everything in the film explodes at some point), and since Anderson
relies on hollow shots of Todd crying or Todd staring to convey depth, I
wouldn't be surprised to find that Peoples' script was a little more
thought-provoking than the film.  It's not a loathsome movie -- there's
nothing morally objectionable in its content (except, maybe, that the
film is action pornography that pretends to have depth, but that's an
entirely different subject).  It's likely that most will describe
Soldier as "just another action film," and, with that in mind, you can
decide for yourself whether or not it's worth your time.

** out of ****
(5/10, C)
 
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