Incinerator here files a report on SOLDIER which doesn't nuke the film like Hallenbeck, and basically calls it 'better than most recent attempts, but wait for video' I have to tell you I loved the script, and it sounds like Paul Anderson may have dropped the ball on this one, which wouldn't be a first. His films feel too artificial to me. Even Horizon could have been wonderful, but it just didn't go far enough, it didn't have atmosphere. Here's Incinerator...
I know I haven't been in touch in a while. Life has been busy. I saw the test screening of Soldier last night.
The movie is set in the near future and shows a new military program where males are raised from birth to be soldiers for the North American Armed Forces. They are raised in groups together and are taught / brainwashed to believe that mercy is for the weak, enemies are to be annihilated, orders must be followed, etc.
Anyway, we soon see the main character Todd (Kurt Russell) as a 38 year old man who has been through many combat actions. A general from their base introduces a new group of Soldiers (Soldiers are known as not just military personnel, they are known as remorseless killers who cannot fit into society due to their mentality & behavior) who were genetically altered and raised to be even more efficient killers than the original Soldiers. They run faster, are more technically proficient and are better fighters. The general demonstrates this by pitting a new Soldier - Caine (Jason Scott Lee - he is massive and looks pretty scary) against 3 of the old ones, including Russell. Caine kills the other two and knocks Russell unconscious.
The military believes Russell to be dead and dumps his body on Arcadia 234 - a garbage planet. Russell finds a colony of people living on the planet. Anyway, the villagers soon realize that Russell is not capable of living in a normal society and they ask him to leave.
After only a night, they ask him to come back, they were wrong, etc. The next day a ship lands to take a census of the garbage planet. The census involves killing the inhabitants of the planet so they won't have to do paperwork that would document their existence. It sounded lame to me too.
Anyway, the new soldiers are on the ship and they intend to make short work of the garbage dwellers. Kurt must face them and defend the trashfolk. Much creative mayhem ensues and we learn the only advantage Kurt has is experience. Some hardcore Rambo moments come from Kurt and he actually looks very scary.
This movie was interesting but does not live up to what I wanted from it. Kurt speaks at most 40 words in the movie - I am not kidding folks. They show him taking in his surroundings and as a result there are about 50 shots of Kurt looking serious, but not doing much else.
I wish he would have had some dialogue with the family he was staying with in Trashville. I wanted to know what it was like for a man to live as a Soldier and nothing else, what it was like to kill women & children indiscriminately (many flashbacks show such occurrences).
Soldier is a very visual movie and I suspect most people would nickname it Trashworld due to its similarity to Waterworld in its look and scope. This movie is OK but not good enough to warrant seeing in a theater. Wait for video and see the spectacle of Kurt Russell fighting Jason Scott Lee. I don't know who directed it, but David Peoples (12 Monkeys, Unforgiven) wrote it.
This film had potential, but was marred by poor directing and an underdeveloped character for Kurt. It was not very pretentious and not as bad as some sci-fi movies that have come out in recent years.
Talk to you later,
Incinerator
