Subject: Review: Soldier (1998)

From: David Sunga <[email-masked]>
Date: 8 Nov 1998 19:08:54 GMT

SOLDIER (1998)

Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4.0)
********************************
Key to rating system:
2.0 stars - Debatable
2.5 stars - Some people may like it
3.0 stars - I liked it
3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
*********************************
A Movie Review by David Sunga

Directed by: Paul Anderson

Written by: David Webb Peoples

Ingredients: Robotic supersoldier, another planet

Starring: Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Connie Nielsen

Synopsis: 
>From birth, Sergeant Todd (Kurt Russell) and other babies are raised and
brainwashed to be the perfect soldiers - - robotic in mentality;
proficient in combat; unable to speak unless spoken to; emotionally
handicapped, and; unable to feel anything but fear and discipline. 40
years later, this line of soldiers is outdated and replaced by a new
line of genetically engineered and brainwashed soldiers. Todd himself is
junked, left for dead, and dumped on a garbage planet inhabited by
shipwrecked humans. One day when the army reappears and attempts to
exterminate the shipwrecked humans, Todd defend the humans against his
former organization.

Opinion:
Usually in flicks where the main character is not human enough to carry
the film, the side characters take up the slack and supply a lot of
drama and dialogue so that audiences don't get bored. Either that or the
action content is brought way up to compensate for no personality.
(Think of ET or THE TERMINATOR). SOLDIER probably won't satisfyingly
hold the attention span of most action-oriented audiences because there
are long periods of time where the emotionally handicapped Todd (Kurt
Russell) sits silently without saying anything at all, and the audience
is left to twiddle its thumbs. SOLDIER's focus is perhaps too much on
the silent Todd, but he doesn't say enough to make it interesting. The
second flaw is that there isn't really any believable reason for the
army to go to Todd's planet and attempt to exterminate the human
shipwreck survivors, other than to force a predictable movie ending. 

A last minute showdown isn't enough. SOLDIER's futuristic and
other-worldly setting might be good enough for a science fiction novel,
but SOLDIER needs to increase its action content, creepy crawly creature
content, or side character involvement throughout the entire film in
order to attract mainstream theater goers.

Reviewed by David Sunga
November 6, 1998

Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga
This review and others like it can be found at 
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