Soldier

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'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.

I don't know what I was doing when this movie originally came out, because I watched this first time today. This was, and still is a movie for me.

Background, lighting and camerawork reminded me of Aliens. Plot was similar to several movies of this genre. I have a feeling that lot was borrowed from Universal Soldier. I detected glimpses of the Terminator-franchise as well. Generally I hate it when I can pinpoint copying or "paying homage" (I'm looking at you, Waterworld...), but the team behind Soldier managed to make the experience enjoyable.

Todd was suitably awkward given his long military career and training. The couple who took him in were in my eyes your basic married-with-children husband and wife very much in love with each other. Their son was a nice surprise. Quiet and sensible kid who didn't get anybody in trouble or killed. Even villains of this movie were tolerable. Predictable as heck but not annoyingly childish.

Solid 8 stars.

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.

Ok, basically this is a popcorn sci-fi movie, but from the outset its obvious that it has been directed with a great deal of intelligence. You can count about 10 clichés that the film is building up to, but it only delivers on about three of them, and a couple of them have a twist to them that lets you know once again that the director hasn't assumed that you are an idiot. Kurt Russell's acting is truely superb and brings a depth from the character that is suprising and rewarding. Recommended if you've just seen something really stupid, and want to rebuild your faith!