Film Review - Soldier (1998)

Soldier starts in the past; 1996 to be specific. This is year zero of the Adam Project, a military program designed to raise the perfect soldiers from birth. The prospective soldiers are raised in a military school, subjected to harsh training, and mentally conditioned to do nothing but follow orders.

After the conclusion of training, we leap to year 38 of the Project. Todd (Kurt Russel) is one of the elite soldiers. He and his fellow troops have been in numerous wars (we get glimpses of the War of the Six Cities, the Moscow Incident, and the Battle of the Argentine Moons (FTL travel exists some time before 2036). How they survive any of them is a bit of a mystery since their tactical acumen seems limited to “walk down the middle of the street firing.” But, hey, it looks bad-ass.

Unfortunately for Todd and his fellow soldiers, there’s something new on the horizon; Colonel Mekum (Jason Isaacs in full-on needless jerk mode) and his genetically engineered, test-tube baby troopers. They prove to be physically superior to the Todd and his comrades. Todd is apparently killed during a fight with one the super-soldiers - Caine 607 (Jason Scott Lee), and his body is dumped with a shipload of garbage on Arcadia 234, a desolate planet used for waste disposal

Todd finds the planet inhabited by a small colony of marooned humans who live off the junk. He attempts to fit in, although it is very difficult due to his training; he knows nothing but war. After he accidentally attacks a colonist, he is exiled; but, when Mekum and his troops arrive and the Colonel decides to eradicate the colony as a training exercise, Todd finds a cause to fight for.

Screenplay writer David Peoples originally conceived of Soldier as a sidequel to Blade Runner. There are a few references to that film sprinkled about, such as a Spinner on the junk planet and Todd having fought at the Tannhauser Gate, which is one of the battles Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) mentions in Blade Runner. It isn’t hard to see Caine and the other supersoldiers as a variation on the Replicants. And, the story does touch on some of the themes of Blade Runner, namely what is it that makes a person human, can we really get away from our nature as emotional creatures, and is there such a thing as the soul inherent in human consciousness.

While the acting is pretty good, the characters are poorly developed. Colonel Mekum is cartoonishly cruel, to the point of seeing civilians as targets for his troops because he doesn’t want “paperwork.” The soldiers, including our protagonist, have very little dialogue. While Kurt Russell does a serviceable job of trying to show Todd’s inner conflicts, the mostly silent, stoic portrayal - and a third act devoted to action - mean he comes across as shallow.

The film looks good. The designs of Arcadia, the colony cobbled together from civilization’s garbage, and the high tech military hardware are well done (although the APC - see below - would be a missile magnet; there’s a reason we don’t build vehicles the size of barns). Paul Anderson, best known for the Resident Evil films, demonstrates he can tell an interesting visual story, something not evident in his later work. He also works in a visual reference to Event Horizon, his superior film from the previous year.

The film really begins to fall apart in the third act. Instead of continuing to show Todd’s character developing into a full human being, the movie devolves into a pointless orgy of explosions and gunfire. Even though Todd is defending the colonists from Mekum’s soldiers, it is hard to feel good about it. After all, they are following orders and are no more (or less) remorseless killers than he is. And, frankly, Todd’s ability to kill off all of the enemy troops is hard to believe, given how proficient they are supposed to be. It comes across as perfunctory, relying on the enemy being painfully dumb. We know Todd will win, we know they’ll be a showdown between Todd and Caine, we know that Mekum will get his (although, it is from a “planet killer” bomb…so, that’s cool). We’ve seen it all before. Which isn’t a problem in and off itself; but, it is when we’ve seen it done better. Take a look at a movie like Die Hard. We know that Bruce Willis will win; but the story is told in a fun fashion and the action is visually engaging.

With a script that relied less on cliches and more time spent on character development, Soldier would have been a better film. With a third act that didn’t seem so tired, then maybe some of the promising themes could have been further developed. As it is, Soldier is a decent sci-fi/action film, but not as good as it could have been.

Short Attention Span Review - Frank (2014) - With Paper-Mache Spoilers

Frank follows Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), a young office drone with dreams of being a famous musician. He gets his chance when the keyboardist for Soronprfbs goes mad while in his town. Jon joins the band, led by Frank (Michael Fassbender), who spends most of the film wearing a giant paper-mache head. They spend a year in the Irish country-side, recording an album. The manager - and former keyboardist - Don (Scoot McNairy) commits suicide and Jon fills in. He manages to secure a slot at SXSW, but it is a disaster. Synth-player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) stabs Jon and is arrested, drummer Nana (Carla Azar) and guitarist Baraque (Francois Civil) walk off, and Frank suffers a break with reality while on stage. After a few days Frank flees, leaving Jon alone. Jon finds out that he is well know from his Internet presence (mostly the meltdown at SXSW) but as an oddity, not as a musician. He eventually locates Frank - he has gone back to his hometown - realizes that his dreams of stardom led him astray, helps reunite the band and leaves, presumably to return to England and cubicle-land.

The plot is the well-worn "person loses self in quest for fame, learns valuable life lesson." What sets Frank apart is what the cast and crew do with it. Gleeson, Fassbender, and Gyllenhaal all turn in remarkable performances. Gyllenhaal in particular manages to convey concern, anger and a little madness with subtle facial movements and verbal inflections. Fassbender, wearing a mask until the end of the film, has to convey most of his performance verbally and with body language and does a good job of it.

While it has a dramatic core, it is also a very amusing film. The humor is of the surreal/absurdest style; i.e., along the lines of This is Spinal Tap and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It has some interesting themes. The obvious one is that a blind attempt to pursue fame is self-destructive. It also has something to say about the difference between being admired for your art and gaining social media notoriety based on looking and acting odd. The film also has a surprisingly depressing message about art and talent. Jon assumes that, if he had a tormented background - something he assumes the disturbed Frank had - he would also have the same musical talent. He finds that Frank was always talented and that the mental problems that Jon assumed were at the heart of his creativity actually lessened his abilities.

If there is any weakness, it would be the decision to partially break the fourth wall and have Jon's Twitter feed periodically scroll out on the screen. While an interesting device at first, it eventually becomes gimmicky in a non-gimmicky film. Some might also criticize the opaque nature of the protagonists motivations (except for Jon, whose motivation is clear). For the characters who matter, however (Frank, Jon, Clara, and Don) it actually is clear why they behave the way they do. It just isn't spelled out for the viewer in clunky exposition dumps.

Check it out.

TV Review - The Man In the High Castle - Pilot

The Man in the High Castle is an Amazon pilot, adapting Philip K Dick’s alternate history masterpiece for the small screen. Given the source material - a book that not only sets up a chilling “world-that-never-was” in which the Axis wins World War Two, but also looks at themes of social conformity, the plasticity of reality and the nature of truth - and how one can ever really know what is real and if it even matters - it will be interesting to see if a TV show can capture this kind of depth.

If this episode is any indication, I feel confident in writing…maybe?

First, the good stuff. The episode looks great. There are so many nice touches, like the ubiquitous propaganda posters and the Nazified Times Square, that the viewer can rapidly immerse themselves into the reality of this fictional world. Beyond the design and the effects, the cinematography is impressive. The contrast between the harsh, gritty noir of Nazi New York and the slightly warmer glow of Japanese San Francisco is a subtle, but powerful signifier of the two worlds and a visual reminder of which side is the lesser of two evils. The acting by the leads is okay, in as much as the half-dozen or so major characters who are introduced can be captured in the limited screen-time each is afforded. Finally, there is a horrific scene in which Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), a truck driver and Nazi agent is changing a tire in rural German America. A cop stops to help him and everything seems great. Then ash starts falling from the sky and the cop says it’s from the local hospital. It’s Tuesday and that’s when “they burn crips and the terminally ill.” It’s played in such a banal fashion, it captures how any society can assimilate and normalize the most horrific things.

Now, the bad. There’s a lot of the “pronoun game” being played. That’s when one character says to another something like “I have it and I have to get it someplace” then refuses to tell the other character what “it” is. There are a couple of moments of plot-movement via coincidence that make little sense. Protagonist Juliana Crane’s (Alexa Davalos) half-sister shows up in an apothecary shop she is visiting, after being out of San Francisco for weeks. and, she plays the pro-noun game the whole time, refusing to share any useful information, then rushing off after spending 45 seconds talking to Juliana. It is so clumsy in both scripting and execution, I almost turned off the episode as a waster of time. Later, after the half-sister is killed, Juliana finds out that she was in possession of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. In the novel, this was an alternate history written by the titular Man about an Allied victory in World War Two (although not the one in our timeline). In the series, this will be a newsreel (or, perhaps, a series of them) apparently from our timeline. Juliana, for no particular reason - other than PLOT - decides to continue with her sister’s mission, whatever that is.

As for changing Grasshopper from a book to a film, it could work. After all, this is a visual medium, so a newsreel makes for a sensible alternative method of presenting this other story. As long as the theme of how reality exists in layers and the flexibility of truth are maintained, then I’m okay with this.

In spite of some weaknesses in the story, this was a fairly well-done hour of television and holds the promise of being a good adaptation of Dick’s work. Hopefully, Amazon will give the go-ahead for a full season.