Cyborg Soldier (2008)

DVD

Well, to be honest, when I first started to watch this movie, I had absolutely no hope for it. For one, I'm not into futuristic type movies, least of all movies about robots (So far, "Terminator" has been my only exception). However, upon starting the film, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this movie was not futuristic at all. In fact, it happened in present day... Well, present day 2007, but you know what I mean. It was an interesting concept, and for the most part I DID enjoy the movie, it just wasn't executed to it's fullest potential. In fact, most of the movie was kind of hard to follow, and I was really BORED throughout the entire movie. The actors, while for the most part delivering relatively solid performances, aren't the best actors and the world, and I'm pretty sure that, with the exception of Lindsay, most of the cast could have been replaced by people more capable of these kind of action roles (I'm pretty sure that Sylvester Stallone would have enjoyed playing Isaac), and more equipped to have the right kind of responses to these circumstances. While we're at it, I'd like to point out that tons of mechanical looking items scattered about randomly, with bleeping lights and odd whirring noises, do not make things look very high-tech... In fact, it kind of takes away from the fact. Anyway, like I said earlier, do not let my rating for the movie deter you. It's worth a watch, I just wouldn't expect something huge and awesome from it. You'll be VERY let down if you do. It's an interesting film, it's just kind of boring. The ending picks up very well, though, and ends everything with a nice big bang. So check the movie out if you're into these kind of movies. There's a chance you'll like it a lot more than I did, but it's not completely bullshit.

John Stead directs this rather drawl film. Stead is known for his hand in the director's seat of such movies as "Good Morning Tomorrow" and "Troubled Waters," as well as a director's job in a few episodes of the show "Earth: Final Contact." A quick fun fact, too, is that Stead did the stunts for many movies, one of which includes the movie "Webs," which I watched and reviewed last night. Anyhow, Stead's directorship is actually pretty good for the movie.The angles that he chooses are strange, and surpringly they work very well. While the movie itself lacks in a lof different parts, the directing, look, and feel of the entire film was actually good, and is what held the film on it's legs, and kept me watching the entire thing until the end. I didn't really notice any odd filters for the movie, but I think that since it was aiming for an overall realistic feeling, the filters weren't entirely necessary. What really got me was how this didn't feel like a Sci-Fi Channel movie, which I think it might have been, the way most of the things went in it. Anyway, the director actually did a pretty great job with the movie, and created an excellent, and pretty realistic feeling for the movie. The writers of this movie are John Flock, Christopher Warre Smets and John Stead (The Director). Their story is interesting. If it IS a Sci-Fi Channel original movie, then it doesn't follow the basic mantra of the Sci-Fi Channel which is to make lots of interesting stories and awesome plots, and then ruin them with crappy visuals. Anyway, it's storyline is basic, and would be fun to follow, had it been written a little bit better, and a little less boring. The concept is interesting, and it's there. They just need to learn how to develop it properly, and make it interesting. I think, to quote Toby Keith, that "A little less talk, and a lot more action" would have served the film well. The Director and the Writers worktogether fairly well, and put out a film that LOOKS interesting, but in general is kind of boring.

The visuals of this movie are hard to get into and explain well. Since the movie aims for a realistic tone, aside from the fact that the man's half robot or whatever, and so it doesn't do a lot in the visuals realm. You'd think they'd increase explosion amounts, and gunfire, but they don't. I think that Gunfire is where I shall start with this movie. I don't know how other films do it, but when they put together a scene involving gunfire, they make it look VERY real. However in this movie, I could definitely tell that they were using blanks. I know they use blanks in every movie where there is gunfire (You can't really go around actually shooting people, after all), but for the most part movies seem to be able to make gunfire look very real. This one..... does not do such a great job of that. They DEFINITELY used blanks for this one. This then brings me to the next part of my tear up of the gunfire. When the shots would hit home on a character, they definitely made ketchup packets, or something along those lines, explode inside of their vests. It just looked really incredibly fake. If you watch the movie, you'll understand exactly what I mean. Definitely didn't go far enough with the gunfire scenes and making them look realistic. There is a scene in this movie, as well, where an explosion takes place, and let me tell you, that the flames were incredibly computer generated for that one. DEFINITELY not enough time was spent on making this movie a visual masterpiece. One of my favorite aspects of these kind of movies are the visuals, and they never really seem to want to make an effort in that area when it comes to Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies. Kind of annoys me... Alright, I'll be truthful, it REALLY anoys me. So don't start this movie expecting some sort of visual phenomenon because you'll be vastly disappointed with it.

Like I always say, the storyline seems to be the one good thing that Sci-Fi Channel movies seem to excel in. They create these awesome stories and interesting plotlines, and usually end up ruining it by either getting A) Shitty Actors, B) Horrible Visuals, or C) Both. Now this one, manages to screw up it's visuals, while using alright actors, and pretty much mucking up the storyline, as well. When I'd first started this movie, I thought that it was going to be some major rip-off of the "Terminator" movies. After about twenty minutes of the movie, I knew that it wouldn't be. The storyline of this one, while being slightly original, and pretty cool, just drags on and on, it seems, and most of the characters you can't tell what, or who they work for. It's just a giant clusterfuck of things gone wrong with the storyline. It's not that it sucks, it's just that it was executed in completely the wrong manner, which is not to say it wasn't good, either because it was pretty good. Let's just say that an hour and a half really felt like about two and a half hours. I really do admire this Channel for coming up with some excellent concepts, and while this one isn't the best one to have made it's way from the minds of the Sci-Fi channel, it does have the Sci-Fi channel air to it, of slight originality, and a pretty interesting concept, and I may be starting to sound like a broken record at this point, but it would be better if they'd have gone about it a different way. Maybe add some more chase and gun scenes, a couple of explosions. He is afterall a robot, of sorts, right? Anyway, it's an interesting concept, like I said. A cybernetic test subject has escaped the confines of a training facility in a small town. He's the perfect killing machine: strong, fast, and regenerative as well. As an officer meets up with him on the side of a road, she finds that there's something more to this man than it seems. The story goes by slow, and in my case I had some issues staying with the movie. For the most part, though, I was able to pay attention. It was just a bit drawl, is all. The storyline of this story DEFINITELY needs a little work.

Isaac (Played by Rich Franklin in his only movie role) is a cybernetically enhanced being. He was once a convict, set up on death row, but was entered into a top secret government program that filled his body with nanobots, and his memory of anything that he once did was wiped. Now Isaac is like a walking machine, save for the fact that he's a human. The nanobots have enhanced all of his abilities. They've enhanced all of his senses, his strenght, and his speed. He also has the ability to reginerate any wound, thanks to the millions of nanobots in his system. Isaac has escaped the facility in which he was being tested and worked upon, and is now on the run, potentially posing a threat to anyone who gets in his way. Lindsay Reardon (Played by Tiffani Thiessen of "Pandemic") is a deputy sheriff, and is sitting on patrol on the side of a road, when her friend Matt "Matty" Larkin (Played by Jim Annan of "One Week"), who is the dispatcher for the Sheriff's department. He tells her that an old farmer has called in about a trespasser, who has fled into the old 48, which is a nickname that they have for the old town mine. Larkin also informs Lindsay that the farmer shot at the trespasser, and it is likely that he will be holed up in the mine for a while. They both agree that there is only one way out of the mine, and not many, if any, outsiders know about the exit. Lindsay says she's on it, and should be able to bring him in without a problem. Meanwhile, Simon Hart (Played by Bruce Greenwood of "National Treausre: Book of Secrets"), who created Isaac, pretty much, is dealing with the crisis, and how he is going to be able to gain Isaac back, and get him under his own control. Hart vents to his assistant, Dr. Tyler Voller (Played by Aaron Abrams of "Paradise") , who also helped with the creation of Isaac. They're both discussing things, and as Hart is being filled in on things, he also finds out that his funder has sent in a government supervisor to help in his recapture of Isaac. This advisor is a woman, whom they obviously both know, named Janice Fraser (Played by Wendy Anderson of "Android Apocalypse"), who is known for being VERY strict, as well as VERY anal about her procedures. However, this is NOT Hart's only worry. He states that Fraser is a woman with power, and she's also known for being someone whose great with hacking into computers. He tells Dr. Voller to make sure that she is not on her own at all, while she is aiding in the investigation. Meanwhile, as Lindsay reaches the mine, she sees the man, whose obviously the trespasser, run out of the one exit from the mine. She pulls up beside him as he continues to jog on, as if nothing wrong has happened, and ignores her. She rolls down the window and tells him that only people around here know the mines well enough to find that exit, and congratulates him on it. She asks him what he is doing, and he just replies that he is running. As she continues to talk to him, she realizes that something is off, and so she rolls the window back up, speeds up, and cuts the man off. She pulls out her gun and tells the man not to move. The man stops, and does nothing. However, at this time, a group of men in black leather had pulled into the police station, killed Matt "Matty" Larkin, and learned of how to get to where Reardon and Isaac were heading. They arrive there JUST as LIndsay is trying to arrest Isaac. Isaac comes and takes the gun from Lindsay, and tells her that he needs to borrow it, and then warns her to take cover. She listens, worried about what is going to happen, and worried for her life. Isaac goes up to the group of men in leather piling out of the van, all carrying very high-powered automatic weapons. They try and negotiate, and the leader of the group, Beck (Played by Kevin Rushton of "SAW IV"), tries to order the "Soldier," which we find out is Isaac. However it doesn't work, and the men whip up their weapons, and begin to fire. Isaac takes a bunch of shots in the chest, enough to have killed an elephant or two, to put it into proportional size, and he falls down dead. Lindsay is sitting in the back of her cruiser, watching in horror as the man is gunned down by these people. However, right before her eyes, the man gets up and starts shooting back at them. Lindsay hops into the Passenger seat, finally taking some action, and starts the car up. Isaac starts to back up, after shooting down the leader, Beck, and then turns and runs into the car, telling Lindsay to drive away fast. She does, but the men start to pepper their tailgate. They escape, and as the men regroup, Beck stands up, having been wearing Body Armor, and they get back into their car. As soon as Hart finds out that his team failed, he must now track down the whereabouts of both Lindsay Reardon AND Isaac with the help of Janice Fraser. They start to drive around, however, Beck, having been sneaky, took the gun that Isaac dropped, Lindsay's gun, and planted it in the police office, after shooting the body of Matt "Matty" Larkin twice with it, and then tossing it aside, successfully framing Lindsay. NOW Lindsay and Isaac are on the run, and the more and more Lindsay hangs around with Isaac, she begins to realize that he is not human, and wonders what he really is. However, as they are making sure that those people don't catch up with him, that's the least of her worries. They continue to go, but when their car breaks down, they must resort to walking. They stay at a house in the woods for a while. A hunting cabin, to be more precise, and there they lodge so that they have shelter from the harsh conditions. Here, Lindsay tries to get to know Isaac better, but it doesn't really work. At the same time, Hart, and his group led by Beck, with his partner Fraser, tries to find Isaac. Fraser, the idealist, and the good guy we realizes, begins to realize that Hart is manic when it comes to making sure he gets this project back, and now she has to find out what is driving Hart to be this insane in recapturing Isaac. All of the actors and actresses in this movie, with the exception of Tiffani Thiessen, are kind of forgettable in their roles. You don't really feel for the characters, and sometimes wonder why the hell they were hired. Tiffani Thiessen, who plays Lindsay Reardon, however, does a pretty good job with her role, and makes it pretty good. Tiffani Thiessen aside, the casting choices for this movie were DEFINITELY less than great.

All in all, this was a decent film. It's not the greatest by any means, and I don't really know how many times after this I'm going to want to watch it, but for the most part, the general concept of the film was pretty good. The problem was that the way it was executed was boring, which was also aided by the fact that the visuals were pretty much crap and the acting really wasn't that great. The Director of this movie does the best job out of anyone involved with the film. He really chooses a lot of awesome angles to go with the film, which really add to the feeling of the movie, and make it stand out visually (Except for the visuals that I mentioned in the visuals section up above). He doesn't use very many filters, if any, and it really does a great job of giving it that realistic feeling. DEFINITELY a great job by the Director for this film. The Writers of this film do a pretty good job of coming up with a slightly original storyline to go along with it, and executing it FAIRLY well. There were a lot of things that they could have done better to make the movie a lot less boring (Remember: "A little less talk, and a lot more action"). The writers definitely have a good concept, it just wasn't executed very well. The Writers did a pretty good job with this movie, but DEFINITELY could have done a lot better with it, than what they already did. The Visuals of this movie are done.... well very badly. Aside from the camera angles, and small-filter-usage by the director, all of the visuals in this movie were done very poorly. Most notably, the gunfire sequences. They REALLY need to be put a lot more effort into the visuals of these Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies. DEFINITELY not that great of a job on the visuals of this movie. The storyline of this movie, while slightly interesting, was executed, as I've said, very poorly, and just dragged and dragged for most of the movie. This is another area where a little more effort could have been exerted. DEFINITELY a decent job on the storyline, but it also DEFINITELY could have been a lot better. The acting rounds everything up for this movie. All of the actors and actresses that are involved in this movie deliver performances that aren't really convincing, believable, OR realistic, except for Tiffani Thiessen, who manages her role VERY well for this movie. You don't really feel for any of the characters, or relate to them either, except for Tiffani Thiessen's character, who you can feel for, although I'm not sure how well you'd relate to them. DEFINITELY could have done a MUCH BETTER job with the casting choices of this movie. So if you're looking for an interesting and decent Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie, then give this a shot if you see it on TV. I wouldn't say buy it, and I wouldn't say rent it, but I'd say give it a shot. You might not be disappointed!!!!!

I'm not very much of a Special Features man, myself, so I don't really watch them. This movie , however, does not have ANY Special Features on it. Which is not at all disappointing. The film itself was decent, and worth a watch, but it's nothing that you'd need to see Special Features for. I know many people are into Special Features on this website, but trust me. After you watch this film, you won't really want, or feel the NEED, to see any Special Features explaining to you how they did things in the movie, or what the actors did backstage, or even any Deleted Scenes. So if you're disappointed that this version of "Cyborg Soldier" doesn't have any Special Features on it, then you'll just have to get over it because this is really the only version of "Cyborg Soldier" that you can get!!!!!

So if you're looking for a Good version of "Cyborg Soldier," a movie that is decent, but overall VERY disappointing, then this is DEFINITELY the version of "Cyborg Soldier" for you to get your hands on. If you're not really looking for Special Features, than that should be pretty good for you on this version of "Cyborg Soldier." If you ARE looking for Special Features, then you're out of luck. You don't really need any for this movie though because, while it's a decent movie, it's nothing special, and Special Features really aren't that needed. Picture Quality on this version of "Cyborg Soldier" is Digitall Remastered PERFECTLY, making for an OPTIMAL viewing experience on the film, which also means that the Picture Quality is not TOO DARK, and nor is it TOO BRIGHT, but it is JUST RIGHT. So if you want to be able to watch this version of "Cyborg Soldier" with GREAT Picture Quality, then this is DEFINITELY the version of "Cyborg Soldier" for you to get your hands on. DEFINITELY a great job on Picture Quality with this version of "Cyborg Soldier." The Sound Quality on this version of "Cyborg Soldier" is DEFINITELY Digitally Remastered PERFECTLY, and REALLY aids the SOUND Experience on the DVD as well as the VIEWING Experience on the DVD. The Sound Quality is PRETTY MUCH PERFECT, and the Sound Quality is not TOO SOFT, and nor is it TOO LOUD, but it is JUST RIGHT. So if you're looking for a version of "Cyborg Soldier" that has EXCELLENT Sound Quality, then this is DEFINITELY the version of "Cyborg Soldier" for you to get your hands on. The Packaging on this version of "Cyborg Soldier" is done VERY well, as well. It's Front Cover may not be that great, but I think that it would DEFINITELY sell to someone who has never heard of the movie before, let alone SEEN IT BEFORE, and it would DEFINITELY look AWESOME on your DVD Shelves with all of your Other DVDs in your DVD Collection. DEFINITELY a great job with the Packaging of this version of "Cyborg Soldier." So if you're looking for a version of "Cyborg Soldier" and aren't worried about Special Features, but want Great Picture Quality, Excellent Sound Quality, and Awesome Packaging, then this is DEFINITELY the version of "Cyborg Soldier" for you to get your hands on. I wouldn't buy this movie right away, however. It IS a good and decent movie, but it's not great, and it IS rather boring. So give it a try, and if you're into these kind of Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies, then you might like it a lot. So trust me, and try the movie out first. You might not be disappointed!!!!!