Old movies never die--but they sometimes fade out.

"Soldier"
Overall Rating: **½

This review does contain spoilers. Be warned.

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I admit it: I'm usually a sucker for the big-budget action films. So, when I saw the previews for "Soldier," I thought to myself "that'll be a cool movie." Well, not quite.

"Soldier" is the story of a soldier (quel surprise), Todd (Kurt Russell), who was born in 1996 and drafted immediately. Raised by the military, he is subjected to a psychologically and physically brutal training regimen where the washouts are shot on the spot. After his Orwellian training, he is released into the field, where his main duty seems to be shooting unarmed civilians by the dozen.

But this doesn't last, for the sinister Colonel Mekum (Jason Isaacs) has a better soldier. Genetically engineered as opposed to merely selected at birth, Mekum's soldier Caine (Jason Scott Lee) is able to run 15 miles in an hour, then best Todd and two other soldiers in a fight--though he loses an eye in the process.

Assumed to be dead (the other two soldiers are), Todd is dumped onto the planet Arcadia 234--where he finds his way to a village inhabited by survivors of a spaceship crash. Mace (Sean Pertwee) and Sandra (Connie Nielsen), being kind villagers, nurse him back to health, but the villagers vote to banish him when he nearly kills a man because of reflex training. Mace, however, realizes they made a mistake, and summons him back--just in time to save them from Mekum's troops, who are to take possession of the planet, and kill any locals.

Perhaps the best thing about the movie is the lighting and color. Nearly every scene seems dim--the military base is dark and forboding, and the planet is hazy even on the best of days. Grays and brown abound. As bleak as Todd's Spartan existence is, and as impoverished as the colonists are, this helps establish the feel. Yet, while most modern films are woefully underlit when they try to be dark--often making it impossible to see the action, this film manages to keep adequate light on the actors throughout.

There are also a number of nice little touches in this movie. For example, Sandra explains that her son, Nathan, was almost killed when an indigenous green snake bit him. Later, one of the green snakes gets into Nathan's room, and Todd tries to teach Nathan--in a manner similar to his own training--how to kill the snake. Though the lesson is interrupted when Mace kills the snake, the lesson was effective, for when another green snake slithers into his parents' bed, Nathan kills it before it can bite either of them. (This is the incident which changes Mace's mind about Todd.) Another nice touch is the use of names--often with double meanings: Bullfinch's Mythology paraphrases Virgil's description of "Arcadia," as "the home of pastoral simplicity and happiness"--appropriate for a home of happy villagers, but ironically, a garbage dump; then there's Caine--who kills his brothers in arms. And, cheap shot as it may be, you can't help but go "aw" when Todd picks up Nathan at the end.

Unfortunately, there are as many non-sequiturs as there are nice touches. How, when George Bush expected us to only get to Mars by 2020, is the American military conducting operations in other star systems by 2036? This makes no sense, is never explained, and would have been completely avoided just by setting the film 100 years later. The banishment of Todd doesn't really fit the character of the villagers--who put compassion before common sense at almost every turn--and his return without any objections is just as illogical from a character standpoint. Perhaps the biggest dud in the plot, however, is the love triangle. It's clear that Todd is in love with Sandra--but Sandra is married to Mace. Fortunately (or, for the sake of the movie, unfortunately), this doesn't seem to cause any tension among them, and when Mace is killed by Mekum's troops, the triangle has fallen apart halfway through the film.

In the end, however, what crushes "Soldier" is its own mediocrity. There is nothing really memorable or original about it. The key players have all done better. Director Paul Anderson has done much better films such as "Event Horizon" and "Mortal Kombat," as has writer David Webb Peoples--whose most memorable film has to be "Unforgiven." Leading man Kurt Russell is more hit-or-miss, with the terrible "Escape from L.A.," the good "Breakdown," and the wonderful "Stargate" under his belt. The acting overall is adequate--nothing more; it could pass in a stronger film, but here it's one more weakness. The special effects aren't very special. The story is extreamly weak--the aborted love triangle being the biggest flaw. (The preview implied that Todd's being thrown out was deliberate, and that the settlers had simply been thrown out earlier. This would have been a stronger story, I think.) There are a few really violent fight scenes for whatever appeal or repugnance they may hold--well choreographed, but fights alone don't cut it with me.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur once said "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." In the end, I think of that quote, and hope this "Soldier" will soon grow old.


Title:"Soldier"
Release date: October 23, 1998
MPAA rating: R
Overall rating: **½
Director: Paul Anderson
Writer: David Webb Peoples
Stars: Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee

Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Mansion/7045/Soldier.htm
Added to blog site: 8/5/09 (Spoiler alert added)