" soldier " , by director paul anderson , is a film in which any presence of originality is fleeting .
the best moments of the film are in the opning scenes where kurt russel 's character todd is shown growing up under strict military supervision .
brutality through the eyes of the innocent and stripped of it every single day growing up is something that has a lot of emotional potential power behind it , and the opening scenes tap into it a little .
then it goes nowhere with that idea .
there is perhaps one rather fleeting scene afterwards that deals with the potential trauma of this dehumanization , and the rest of the film is just some of the biggest action movie cliches
i 've ever seen .
the whole idea of the inhuman , soldier - type character gaining some degree of humanity by defending a potential female love interest and family from his evil counterpart out to kill her is done , and it 's been done much better .
i was able to predict the plot of the _ whole _ story , which would n't be so bad if other aspect of the film somewhat interesting .
between the action sequences , it tries to deal with the aforementioned issues of humanity through the performance of mr .
russel in the film and the tiny little window to his soul that is his eyes , since
his dialog is extremely limited .
his performance in that way is n't all that bad , but certainly is not enough to carry this film .
other performances in this film are really not worth much mention at all , and they generally are about as weak as their characters .
but enough of this stuff about plot and character , right ? is n't the most important part of an action film , well , the action ?
even in this aspect the film is a disappointment .
in mortal kombat ( 1995 ) , director paul anderson proved that truly engaging use and choreography of action in a film can override problems with plot and produce something entertaining . however ,
he fails to repeat that in this film .
the combat scenes , particularly the big one at the end , is incredibly unimaginatve .
fighting and combat scenes are supposed to bring about thrills in this type of movie , a point which even an otherwise unimpressive film like starship troopers seemed to realize .
but instead of reaching for something truly interesting to end the film with , it goes for the old , shoot - em up , one guy vs .
an army type of cinema
that i thought died with the military action films of the 80s .
if the film went with some of the ideas it opened up with the introduction more seriously , it could have been a rather engaging science fiction film . however ,
it utterly failed to go in any new directions after that , making the film a big disappointment .
he fails to repeat that the rest of the film is just some of the biggest action movie cliches really not worth much mention at all it utterly failed about as weak as their characters goes nowhere with that idea a film in which any presence of originality is fleeting a big disappointment his dialog is extremely limited incredibly unimaginatve it goes for the old , shoot - em up , one guy vs . an army type of cinema