Soldier (1998)

If you didn't know any better, you would think I was about to describe the plot of an old Chuck Norris or Jean Claude Van Damme straight-to-video film.

Kurt Russell plays Todd, a soldier, picked from birth to be trained in combat fighting to the point where he is nothing more than a programmable killing machine. He and his fellow soldiers fight in many skirmishes and battles until Mekum (Jason Isaacs) comes along. Mekum has created a new fighting force using genetic engineering. One of his men, Caine (Jason Scott Lee), kills two other older soldiers and wounds Todd. Todd and his dead comrades are dumped on a giant garbage collecting planet, not knowing that Todd is still alive. On the planet, he meets the survivors of a crashed ship who have a Utopian existence. Todd stays with Mace (Sean Pertwee) and his wife Sandra (Connie Nielsen), and he begins to learn the ways of love and peace, man. Mekum happens to pick the garbage planet to train his new fighting force on and the last third of the film is one big long nasty fight.

I like science fiction as much as the next Trekkie, but "Soldier" does not contain one plot point or character I have not seen before. The outcome is a foregone conclusion. Russell is too good an actor to play stiff. He is wasted in the title role, another version of the Terminator or Rambo or any other silent killing machine. Things on the garbage planet (can we call a moratorium on those in all futuristic films?) are going too well, and the fact that the very same man who dumped Todd there picks it for exercises is a real stretch. The special effects are okay, nothing you haven't seen before. The supporting cast tries, but the direction and script stink. Anderson's final third is not only a long shootout, but a boring one. Todd is everywhere and nowhere, killing indestructible soldiers, then vanishing. All the explosions, shootings, punches, and hoopla bore, especially when the end is devoid of suspense. At ninety nine minutes, the film feels padded, as if the running time was increased by more and more explosions.

"Soldier" bombed at the box office, and with good reason. Sometimes the public can spot a loser, and they were right in this case.

Stats:
(1998) 99 min. (2/10)
-Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
-Written by David Webb Peoples
-Cast: Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee, Jason Isaacs, Gary Busey, Michael Chiklis, K.K. Dodds, James Black, Mark De Alessandro, Vladimir Orlov, Jared Thorne, Nathan Thorne
(R)