Best movie of this year hands down!

Truly Dreadful Film

i must have seen a different film!!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Paul Anderson's follow-up to EVENT HORIZON is another multi-million pound special effects space extravaganza, but it seems that the problems which faced EVENT HORIZON - namely that it was little more than a rehash of other, better movies - also faces this latest, violent movie. This time around the influences are even clearer, and yes, it's Rambo in space time, with a beefed-up Russell taking on a squad of superhuman soldiers and, predictably, winning. In one scene we see Russell applying camouflage paint to his face in a scene directly copied from Schwarzenegger's COMMANDO, while the nomadic colony brings to mind the MAD MAX trilogy, with even a touch of ALIEN 3 thrown in for good measure (the refuse planet being a giant scrapheap). At least SOLDIER tries to do something different this time around, but in the end we have yet another mindless film which substitutes plot for effects, and the plotting really is minimalist.The theme of an almost android-like person trying to discover humanity has been explored loads of times, and this time it's no different. Kurt Russell struggles to convey pathos in his role and very nearly succeeds, while he is no great actor he is adequate in a role which only gives him a few scant lines of dialogue, and, just like Christopher Lee found in THE MUMMY, it's pretty difficult to convey feelings using only your eyes, but Russell just about does it. If not entirely successful, it's still a entertainingly bad effort. Also, for a man nearing 50, he's in great shape.He is given able support by Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee, both returning from EVENT HORIZON, and Isaacs fits naturally into the old school type of leader who destroys anything in his path. Pertwee too is a long way from the kind of stuff his father was in, and both men cope well with their respective roles, even if they are quite small. Gary Busey also has a small role as a military man, and it's good to see him in a film again, even if he doesn't play the baddie this time (something of a rarity here folks). Jason Scott Lee, with a fake eyeball, visually plays the part of a heavy well, although he doesn't act (unless you count having a mean expression on your face as acting).Once the action starts, however, it soon all falls apart. Firstly, it's all predictably bigger and more expensive than we've seen before, with rockets flying around in every corner and debris being scattered. Men getting shot is always a boring death to me, especially when it's repeated loads of times. However there are a few enterprising deaths to be had, the best being, of course, the final showdown between Lee and Russell, wherein Lee is slashed with an iron girder, has his arm and then his neck broken. It's bloody and gruesome (although when the film shows a brief glimpse of a man's blown-off leg, you have to give it some respect for not dwelling on the moment, the impact of the glimpse working much more effectively when the viewer uses his/her imagination), so you immediately see why I liked it. In the end, though, SOLDIER is an insubstantial film, much like EVENT HORIZON was. It's an intriguing premise, to be sure, but one which is severely hampered by poor execution. So-so.

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.

Here's another movie that was marketed to the wrong audience and therefore died at the box office. I found Soldier to be a profound meditation on violence and beauty. Kurt Russell delivers yet another exemplary-but-unclaimed performance. His Sgt. Todd is an Everyman who does his duty, no questions, and is tossed out with the rest of the garbage when the next new thing comes along. From that point, Russell's facial expressions combine with the sensuous camera-work of the cinematographer to provoke the questions: Do I deserve love, beauty, and community? and: When, if ever, is violence necessary? This is a flick I'd recommend to the content guardians who are knee-jerk haters of violence. Soldier uses violence appropriately, intelligently. It is a film for grown-ups. Then again, censors rarely get that point. Bottom line: When you watch this film, you have to watch everything that is going on. It's not just another action flick.Highly recommendation for a 90's and action sci-fi lovers! My ratings: 8 out of 10.

Version I saw: UK DVD releaseActors: 6/10Plot/script: 7/10Photography/visual style: 7/10Music/score: 6/10Overall: 6/10It is not widely known, but Soldier is actually a 'side-quel', set in the same world as Blade-Runner. It mentions a couple of details in passing which mark the connection. It is mainly notable, however, for being the follow-up of director Paul W.S. Anderson to the seminal Event Horizon.Anderson's career has become increasingly shaky, arguably deteriorating progressively from a high-water mark that was the eerie sci-fi horror film Event Horizon. Some of his output has veered dangerously close to outright B-movie fare.Soldier is, in some ways, a throwback to the 1980s, an era of bold, brash action movies with muscular male stars. It even has a couple of representatives of that period, in the form of star Kurt Russell and supporting player Gary Busey. They feed into a theme of old vs. new, mature vs. inexperienced, that I thought would be the entire backdrop to the story.It turns out that this was only a prelude. Russell's titular warrior loses heavily, and is cast out to survive in the wilderness, amongst poor scavengers. Here, it becomes clear that the skills and temperament that made him an excellent soldier, and indeed that were ruthlessly ground into him, are handicaps in any other context. This puts it in a field with the likes of All Quiet on the Western Front, Born on the Fourth of July, Full Metal Jacket, First Blood and right up to the much more recent American Sniper and Ender's Game. Admittedly, having said that, it is far from flattered by these comparisons, but it deserves some credit for tackling an issue, which is more than can be said for many of those dumb 80s actioners.Russell has always been a likable lead, and has only grown in experience. In Soldier, he needs every ounce of it, because his character is so laconic as to be practically mute. So much of his performance comes in the form of body language and facial expressions, constituting a hundred different gradations just of stoic determinedness and confusion/uncertainty. There's something... efficient about his performance that rather impressed me.Another thing that impressed me somewhat was the special effects. By today's standards, CGI from this period often looks very ropey. However, Anderson cleverly places these special effects shots in the background and doesn't draw attention to them, so that they enhance the far-future outer space setting without coming under excessive scrutiny.When it comes down to it, though, Soldier is first and foremost an action film. For all the other themes explored to a degree in the movie, by far the theme most explored is that of men fighting each other. But that certainly has its place, and has become Anderson's metier. I hear Pompeii is pleasingly daft and enjoyable, and if he is not going to go back to the tense, intense horror of Event Horizon, this will more than suffice.