Kurt Russell is always awesome. Even when he is in less than stellar films, and sadly, this one, despite being set in the same universe as Blade Runner (watch for all the little details) is pretty bad.

I remember when this first his DVD, and I took it home and watched it. I know I did that, but I didn’t remember anything about it. Now, watching it again, it’s easy to see why. It’s not executed very well.

Russell is Todd 3465 raised and trained to be the perfect soldier, a killer without remorse. Inducted as a child he’s ruthless, unemotional, and the peak military weapon. Until he’s not. When Colonel Mekum (Jason Isaacs) introduces an upgraded breed of solider, exemplified by Caine 607 (Jason Scott Lee).

Beaten and left for dead, he’s dumped with the rest of the trash on a remote backwater planet that has been turned into a giant garbage dump. Here he meets Mace (Sean Pertwee) and Sandra (Connie Nielsen)and their mute son, Nathan (Jared and Taylor Thorne) as well as countless other refugees.

He begins to find his way not as a solider, but as a person, though even as this world has a problem accepting him.

When Mekum learns of the refugees hiding out on the planet, he sees it as a perfect exercise for his new soldiers, and sends them in. Only Todd 3465 stands in their way.

Russell is great, the action sequences are okay, and Anderson has layered in tons of nods to not only Russell’s other films, but the screenwriter penned Blade Runner, and has made ties to it throughout the film.

I like the cast, the idea isn’t so great and needed more of a story. There’s a bit of a Shane thing happening here, but it’s not explored like it should have been.

And wow, some of the effects are really bad, and yet, others, are solid and well executed. I find a lot of Anderson’s films are like that, and while I enjoy most of his work, as much as I love Kurt Russell, this one didn’t do much for me at all.

Nothing but Russell stood out in this film, and made it memorable. And that’s unfortunate as there is definitely a good idea here somewhere, it was never realized though.

Oh well.