To be fair, you don't go into a Kurt Russell movie expecting a thought-provoking cinematic experience. But "Soldier" is so dumb it almost makes the others look like Shakespeare by comparison.
This sci-fi actioner comes off as a cross between "The Postman" and "The Terminator." The problem is it isn't nearly as thrilling as the latter film, and a strong argument could be made that it's even worse than the former.
And it's a genuine disappointment considering the script was written by David Webb Peoples, whose other efforts in the genre have at least been passable, if not good ("12 Monkeys," "Blade Runner"). Unfortunately, his script here is awful, and it doesn't help that he's working with a director with a penchant for making real turkeys: Paul Anderson, who counts "Event Horizon" and the first "Mortal Kombat" film among his credits.
Anderson's novel solution to slow-moving stretches is to add explosions. But when it comes to directing actors, he's at a loss.
The story is set in the near future, where children are selected to be soldiers at birth and are given brutal, dehumanizing training (those who are too weak to complete their "studies" are killed). The best of this crop is Todd (Russell), a veteran of several intergalactic skirmishes.
But he and his fellow vets are rendered obsolete by a new breed of fighting men, genetically engineered warriors with faster reflexes and more endurance. In a "training exercise" with one of these killers (Jason Scott Lee), Todd and two others are defeated and are believed to be dead. Their bodies are subsequently dumped on an outpost planet, which is used to dispose of waste.
Unbenownst to the military, Todd is still alive, and there's also a village of earthly outcasts living there. And when Todd's former commanding officers (Gary Busey and Jason Isaacs) decide to hold further exercises on the planet, Todd is put in the position of defending the hapless settlers, who have been classified as "hostiles."
You can understand why Russell (who has relatively few lines) is so robotic, but that doesn't explain why the rest of the cast seems to follow his lead.
And the special effects are certainly nothing to write home about. The spaceship model-making isn't much better than that for the first "Star Wars" movie, while the sets could have been recycled from "Star Trek" (we're talking the original series, not "The Next Generation").
"Soldier" is rated R for violent hand-to-hand combat and gunplay, gory makeup effects, profanity, vulgar gags, glimpses of nude photos and brief drug use.