GHOST SOLDIER Review: As Rote, Routine, and Generic as the Title Suggests

Released stateside to coincide with Veterans Day (November 11), the federal holiday that honors military veterans and commemorates the end of World War I (aka Armistice Day), the Chris Papasadero-written, William Eubank-directed, Jim Caviezel-headlined Ghost Soldier (formerly titled Archangel) does neither.

 

It’s far too much of a rote, routine, generic actioner to credibly honor military veterans. For that matter, it fails to commemorate the First World War or, to be fair, any of the last century's wars.

 

Set in the fictional town of Valentine, Wyoming (Bucharest, Romania, and its environs in actuality), Ghost Soldier centers on the titular character, Henry “Fitz” Fitzgerald (Caviezel), an ex-Special Forces operative who doubles as a weapons inventor and tester for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Defense. Fitz lives a quiet life above and below ground.

 

Above ground, he keeps a low, if friendly, profile, exchanging pleasantries with the local gun dealer/shop owner, Garry (Michael Ironside), and local law enforcement, Sheriff Parker (Olivia Thirlby), among others. With Garry, Fitz occasionally trades modestly upgraded weapons of mass destruction for ammunition and other related supplies. With Parker, he keeps a cool, casual distance, less out of dislike than a natural wariness. 

 

While Fitz also keeps a close watch on a nearby family, the Hernandez clan, primarily out of a sense of duty and/or obligation to a fallen comrade-in-arms who didn’t return home from one of America’s forever wars, he also spends a considerable amount of time in his well-stocked underground bunker. There, Fitz tweaks and tests new military-grade weapons, including “smart” ammo and a turtle-shaped explosive device. If nothing else, it keeps him busy, gainfully employed, albeit in a “ghost” capacity with one of the U.S.’s countless government agencies, and away from a natural inclination to right wrongs with extreme prejudice in the world at large. 

 

Papasadero’s script leans heavily, even presciently, into current events, specifically the unchecked proliferation of electricity-hoarding and water-dependent data centers across America’s heartland. A U.S.-operated, foreign-controlled corporation, Brownstone, functions as Ghost Soldier’s “big bad.” Run by soulless corporate ghouls, but partly owned and financed by Middle Eastern investor(s), Brownstone’s future profitability depends wholly on purchasing land and water rights in and around the town of Valentine, Wyoming, presumably key for data center expansion.  

 

When holdouts refuse to take Brownstone’s “generous” offer, they send out their corporate goon squad. When a violent encounter leaves the Hernandez patriarch hospitalized and his grandson, Jack (Cameron Gayden), in mortal danger, Fitz doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t just react. He acts. Fitz puts his “special set of skills” into the life-or-death fight against the “corporate tyranny” (Fitz’s exact words in the film) threatening the good people of his adopted hometown and their respective livelihoods. 

 

With Brownstone’s in-house corporate goons incapable of stopping Fitz, the Powers-That-Be send along the usual assortment of heavily accented Eastern European mercenaries. They’re not just crueler and more sadistic than Brownstone’s standard-issue in-house henchmen; they’re far better equipped to handle a threat like Fitz and his armory too.

 

Ghost Soldier's late arrivals give it a much-needed jolt. They also give Fitz a new set of foes nearly equal to his otherwise (near) superhuman skill set. Fitz, though, can do more than outfight any goon or merc who aims a firearm in Fitz's general direction: He can outthink them too. And outthink he does, repeatedly 

 

That, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily fatal to an actioner, but the script’s aforementioned rote, routine, generic nature certainly qualifies. Outside of the data center angle, Papasadero’s screenplay hits every standard, sometimes every sub-standard, action beat. A talented director obviously slumming here, Eubanks (Underwater), does his level best to improve otherwise threadbare material, but ultimately fails to elevate the obligatory set pieces beyond a perfunctory polish.  

 

Ghost Soldier’s lack of novelty or originality isn’t helped by Caviezel's (Person of Interest, The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, The Thin Red Line) insistence on delivering every line of dialogue in the same sleep-inducing monotone. His line deliveries suggest someone giving an online sandwich-making tutorial, not a uniquely skilled, ex-Special Forces operative stirred into violence by the injustices he witnesses firsthand.