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Kurt Russell is strong and (mostly) silent in this futuristic action-thriller from Paul Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil.) Set on a garbage-dump planet, Soldier plays like a cross between Rambo and Shane, with Russell barely speaking as the title character, an "obsolete" genetic soldier left for dead. The supporting cast of colonists, including Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and a surprisingly hirsute Michael Chiklis, is able. They spend most of the movie being scared of Russell, and the rest of it running for their lives. Russell's performance here is one of the best he's ever given. With almost no words to say, he conveys emotion, feeling and meaning with looks and glances. It is almost a mime performance. When the action sequences kick into gear, he kicks ass--and does so in a strong, silent, matter-of fact way. There are flaws. Jason Scott Lee is brutish as a "superior" genetic soldier. Jason Isaacs does a great impression of Frank Burns from M*A*S*H as a weaselly commanding officer, and Gary Busey busts a gut (and nearly busts his girdle) as Todd's mentor. This is an underrated, and excellent sci-fi flick, and recommended for anyone who wants a second visit to the universe of Blade Runner--David Webb Peoples wrote both screenplays.

In a future society, the military component does not have to recruit; rather, their candidates are chosen at birth, culled from nurseries and designated to spend their entire lives in the service of the government. They are given over to the war machine, body and soul, for no reason other than to protect and serve; they have no personal identity other than a name and rank, and no autonomy whatsoever. This is the fate of those whose destiny is predetermined for them in `Soldier,' directed by Paul Anderson and starring Kurt Russell. The scenario is hard and bleak as the movie begins by depicting the training of the soldiers during advancing periods of time, from preadolescence to adulthood. Russell is Sergeant Todd, the best of the best, and we glimpse his career as he discharges his duties in an exemplary manner in campaign after campaign; he is what he was born to be, a soldier. But even the best cannot go on forever, and the day arrives when Todd and his peers are no longer the elite. A new generation of soldiers has been created, products of advanced genetics and technology, and Todd's generation is suddenly obsolete. What follows is the story of a man who must fight for his life, while struggling to discover his own sense of humanity and individuality, traits new to a soldier who has known only two things his entire life: Fear and discipline. Russell gives a commanding performance as Todd, the soldier who above all else must obey orders without question while suppressing all emotion and individual thoughts. He has few lines in this movie, but Russell speaks volumes with his eyes. This role demonstrates that he is, in fact, one of the under-appreciated actors of our times; that he can disappear so entirely into the character of Todd is a credit to his ability, and with this part he has created someone quite different from any he's done before. And he's given Todd a depth and credibility that someone of lesser talent could easily have rendered as nothing more than a pretentious and superficial stereotype. Notable performances are also turned in here by Connie Nielsen (Sandra) and Jason Isaacs (Colonel Mekum). Rounding out the supporting cast are Jason Scott Lee, memorable as Caine 607, one of the new generation of soldiers; Sean Pertwee (Mace); Gary Busey (Captain Church); Michael Chiklis (Jimmy Pig); and Mark Bringleson (Rubrick). Anderson has delivered an action film with a message, a cautionary tale that transcends the genre of science-fiction. `Soldier' reminds us of the importance of keeping the humanity of our lives intact. It's an entertaining way of making us consider the alternatives, like a bleak future and a world in which good movies just wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. Much like `1984,' and `Mad Max,' this movie, which is ultimately uplifting, is going to make you take pause and think about the kind of Universe in which we all must live together and share. I rate this one 7/10.

The first two sequences of this movie set up the two conflicts: the -thematic- conflict between the soldier Todd and his suppressed humanity, and the -physical- conflict between Todd and his bio-engineered replacement. Both sequences are quite gripping in different ways.

Peoples' screenplay falters somewhat by resolving the first of these arcs half-way through the movie, which means the second half is little more than a straightforward action romp.

Nonetheless, kudos to the makers for creating an genre action piece with heart and even a bit of soul and especially to Kurt Russell who conveys much with very little.

Not a great film, but one worth seeing.

It's odd. Surfing the net, I find almost nothing but bad reviews for this film, despite being one of the best Sci-Fi films to be released by Warner Bros. in the last couple of years. It features an award-caliber performance from Kurt Russell (himself an underrated actor,)a smart script and stylish direction. Yet people insist it's a pile of cow pat. This character-driven movie is certainly better than, say, "The Matrix," which suffered from plot and logic holes, and had one of the worst endings ever. Although, admittedly, "Matrix" was meant to be a "Dumb" film, while "Soldier" is smarter than you think. The script never flinches, never compromises it's purpose or characters, and director Anderson (of "Event Horizon," the best horror-in-space movie since "Alien") shows sci-fi works better as a setting than a genre. And as for Russell, he shows more emotion and character in his performance than most Oscar winners, being extremely sympathetic even when doing unsympathetic things.

So I say ignore the gup about this being a bad movie. If you are a real sci-fi film lover, throw out "The Matrix" and get "Soldier" instead.

A childhood movie of mine which I cherish a lot and had a lot of good memories with. This is also the first time I personally got introduced to Kurt Russell. My bias aside, this was a great movie with a lot of fun and action and story poured into it. A little dark at the start with some child violence and stuff but it's all cool. It's a very fun movie to watch. It's very hard for me to look at "Soldier" with an outside perspective because my bias won't allow me, I honestly loved this movie from start to finish. What I will however admit though, is that it's by no means perfect or anything, hence the 7/10 rating.

All I heard about this movie is that it was nothing but pure trash. Every review killed the movie. Well, I tend to disagree. The movie moved along at a good pace & as stupid as the plot sounds it actually works. Don't believe everything you hear, see it for yourself. Kurt not only played the part he was given but looked it too. At age 47 he looks absolutely incredible! I'm not saying that I loved the movie, but it's definitely worth seeing if you're a fan of action/sci-fi flicks.

C'mon! 6.0...really??? Unique in every way. Yet another powerful performance by Kurt Russell. Entertaining from start to finish. Very underrated in my opinion. Jason Scott Lee's character Cain scared me as a kid! Effects were great for there time. Brilliant story. Hope it doesn't get a remake/reboot. My daddy had a saying, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!" 9/10

I bought the Laser Disk of this movie and watched it for the first time last night. I thought it was pretty cool, and the audio commentary by the director, producer and co-star was first rate. Highly recommended purchase on LD, or DVD. And if you have a Pro-logic or Ac3 amp it sounds brilliant.

Before poor Paul W.S. Anderson made a fatal misstep with Alien Vs. Predator and was maligned, he made a few really excellent genre flicks back in the mid to late 90's, one of them being the mostly forgotten and excessively fun Soldier, starring a mostly mute and wholly badass Kurt Russell as a genetically bred super soldier who has fallen on hard times. His name is Todd 3465, and he's from the last line of soldiers who are in fact real humans, albeit altered. There's a new program moving in, wherein actual replicants are produced, rendering Todd obsolete. The head of the new outfit is sadistic Colonel Mekum (Jason Isaacs in full evil prick mode), who wants to do away with anything that isn't state of the art. Todd is thrashed in a one on one smackdown with Mekum's lead soldier (Jason Scott Lee), and then left to die on a remote planet used only for trash disposal and inhabited by wayward crash survivors who scavenge what they can. Todd is immediately the outsider, an unfeeling asset bred only for combat and alien to human qualities. A few among the group, including their leader Mace (Anderson regular Sean Pertwee) and Jimmy Pig (Michael Chicklis) attempt to connect, but it's gorgeous Connie Nielsen who finally breaks the ice. He may be conditioned to kill, but he's still a human man after all, and there's some base instincts you just can't ignore. Trouble brews when Mekum shows up again, that bastard. Now he wants to vaporize their planet on the grounds that the refugees are essentially squatting. Undermining him is Todd's former boss Church (an unusually restrained Gary Busey), an honorable military veteran who'd love to put Mekum six feet under and restore order. Todd must help his newfound friends, fight tooth and nail against replicants and win his superiority back. Russell is a tank in the role, letting both silence and action speak volumes, a one man old school ass kicking hero of the highest order. The world building and outer space effects are incredibly fun, the villains are broadly characterized with the force of a western, and the whole film knows what people want for a good time at the cinema. Oohh and fun fact: this takes place in the same cinematic universe as Blade Runner, and you can listen for the brief tie in reference that only die hards will pick up on. Great stuff.

It is very rare that Kurt Russell makes a mediocre film. He is a very talented actor. Many of his character roles have been very convincing when they're need to be and is good at making laughs too. But what made him sign onto this project was beyond my comprehension. It's hard enough to accept that the story itself could be passed off as a cinema production, let alone this be a good movie. There was so much more director Paul W.S. Anderson could have done with this.

Kurt Russell is Todd, a genetically altered human being, created to serve in the military. Todd is a muscular, silent, and deadly warrior. His skills are top notch and his killing is callous. He has no fear of anything. He is simply a human version of the T-800 endoskeleton from The Terminator (1984). That's cool stuff. However the character of Todd is another story. Todd is basically the equivalence of having a conversation with a rock. He has no social skills and his ability to communicate is through violence. That's not a fun character to watch when one is trying to understand them.

But nothing lasts forever. Soon the people who bio-engineered Todd are able to create even more powerful human soldiers. It is to Todd's discretion that he is discharged and eliminated. What the higher command doesn't know is that Todd's not dead. And the planet that he was dumped on is now going to receive some unexpected help. Now it is up to Todd to protect a group of people from being annihilated and break them free from their universal prison. This is where he begins to gain the ability to be more human. But by the time this happens, the movie is dismally over. The reason the terminator is more amiable than Todd is how fast it is able to process information and become more human. Todd is not a computer and it takes him a long time to start being a likable character.

The planet that these refugees hide in is dull. From background to front screen, everything is the same color; beige. Even the sky is beige. The ground is made up of a granular dirt and it's always windy. All this does is prevent the audience from having a clear image of what is going on in every scene, not to mention, everything is covered in sand. The plot lagged as well. This is supposed to be a sci-fi action film, not a drama. And that's all that kept getting pushed on me while I was watching this for more than half the time.

It wasn't until the last few acts did I really enjoy this film. Why - because finally there was some action. The army that Todd once belonged to returns to the planet he was dropped into to exterminate the outcasts that he lived with. It's at this point that Russell finally puts those muscles to work, especially when it comes to that Gatling gun! It reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger too much but it was fun to remember. It's really cool how Todd was able to defy all odds and take on an entire army and come out with only a few scratches. However, this is all I can give it. The ending is nice too but in no way could I see Todd being anything but what he was "brought up" to be.

Kurt Russell probably had fun but as for audiences go, the feeling may be the complete opposite. Nothing is new, fascinating or funny about this in general. The few action scenes are the only entertainment here.

Much. Ether than the Van Damme and stupid action movies of today! And better than all of Schwarzenegger's stupid films... I liked it. I loved Mary Poppins , The wizard of Oz and Sense and Sensibility too. I love all kinds of movies. My only requirements for a decent rating is: was it Fun? Was it interesting and was it better than avg for its genre. This met all 3 requirements. I get sick of all the fools on here trying to act like a Lorcano Critics Academy member. Bunch of geeks! And even the elite critics get at least half their reviews wrong. If you enjoyed yourself and forgot about your troubles for a couple hours.. any movies worth a 6 you geeks!

Anderson is the director of "Soldier." His previous films include "Event Horizon" and "Mortal Kombat." Based on those, and now especially on the incompetent, amateurish mess that is "Soldier," it's pretty clear that he doesn't have the first idea how to tell a story, or even how to make a good movie.

He wastes an interesting premise, from screenwriter David Webb Peoples (the writer of "Blade Runner" and "Unforgiven," the latter an Oscar-winner). He wastes a surprisingly effective performance by Kurt Russell, who does a remarkable job showing the human feeling awakening beneath the stoic, near-robotic surface of the trained-from-birth title character. (What he's doing in this turkey, we'll never know.) He wastes the talents of a highly experiences artistic and technical crew, all of whom of have done much better work in previous films.

He wastes them by making an inept and frequently even laughable grade-Z action snoozer. The plotting is clumsy, the subtext obvious -- and I don't know when I've seen a movie so clearly expensive that looks so cheap. Visually, it's like an ultra-low-budget made-for-cable flick, something on the level of a late-80's Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle you might see on Showtime at 3am. This cheap look is difficult to reconcile with the fact that they obviously spent gobs of money on the thing, but somehow Anderson pulls it off.

A big, stupid, post-Apocalyptic action movie is one of the easiest genres to pull off. "Waterworld" was bad, but at least it was marginally watchable. "Soldier" is absolutely awful, and Paul Anderson demonstrates he can't even do a brainless testosterone movie. Catch it when it shows up on MST3K in a couple of years, but for now, avoid, avoid, avoid.

I'm not a Paul W.S. Anderson basher - that is, I think he's a generally poor director but I don't devote my life to criticizing him endlessly on Internet message boards - and I think he's at least handled the visual aspects of most of his movies quite well (hate it or not, "AvP" - which I didn't care for - was atmospherically in-touch with the other movies, and "Event Horizon" felt like an "Alien" sequel itself).

But really. This movie is absolutely terrible. It's easily Paul's worst movie, which is saying quite a lot. I'm even a decent fan of Kurt Russell so for me to say his performance sucks beyond belief here would be like a Jim Carrey fan admitting Carrey is too over the top in his earlier comedies - it's not going to happen.

The movie basically rips off every futuristic/apocalyptic action movie you can think of, including "Alien," "Blade Runner," "The Terminator" and of course Kurt's "Escape from New York." The problem is there's no substance here.

The direction is slipshod and lazy - the action scenes are boring and none of the characters stand out at all. The hero is a dull, emotionless waste of space who has one facial expression preserved throughout the movie: The Kurt Russell "Cold Stare." (tm) You'll know what I mean if you've seen a Kurt Russell movie before.

Anyway, if you're a Paul basher then you'll hate this. If you're not a Paul basher you'll still hate it. I don't have a problem with simplistic action movies - but at least make them ENTERTAINING! I was dead bored watching this.

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.

I am a little biased because I like Kurt Russel, but for all the claims the film was derivative or unimaginative I don't know what people are comparing it to. Its space opera with some familiar, or at least fairly talented faces. You kind of knew where it was going very early and the mind numbing distopian "what if" was pretty obvious. Its Dirty Harry with energy weapons. Not Star Wars or Alien but dialed back to Pitch Black for complexity.

Give the lead character more than 100 words of dialogue. A personality would be a nice addition too. I get the point they are making, maybe they could have actually tried to tell the story in an interesting manner, injected a little vitality and energy into the story. And I'm sorry, I don't buy the ending - the gross misjudgement of the opposition by the commander, the martinet officer, etc.