I really thought Soldier was going to be halfway decent. The director had done one of my favorite action movies, Mortal Kombat. It had Kurt Russell in the lead as a buff military dude. The cover featured explosions. What could possibly go wrong?

In the future, babies are picked at birth for their occupation: some are cooks, some are soldiers. Kurt Russell is a ruthless soldier who shoots a pregnant woman at point-blank range to kill the terrorist behind her. After many war campaigns, Kurt Russel is dismayed to find that cyborg soldiers are in, while human soldiers are out. He is shipped to a Mars-like planet to die. While there, he helps some friendly humans fight off a cyborg invasion.

The story is OK. The original script was supposed to be awesome, but something went wrong along the way. The movie is pure action. I’m not joking… You can fit all the dialogue on ten pages. An explosion is an explosion, but after a thousand times it becomes a boring explosion. While the sets are impressive, the acting isn’t. Kurt Russell certainly lifted plenty of weights for the part, but comes off more as a bastard than a savior of humanity.

I wish they would have made this movie as originally intended—it was supposed to be much darker in tone.

I give Soldier *1/2 out of ****.