Rather, “Soldado” is a grim, serious-minded look at what America can do to disrupt this system - one that’s much too smart to think that a border wall will solve anything, but downright risible in its own might-makes-right politics, which reduce to a single, terse catchphrase: “No rules this time.”
Tense, tough, and shockingly ruthless at times, “Soldado” doesn’t show much interest in the individuals who dream of a better life in the United States, any more than “Rambo: First Blood Part II” cared about the victims of the My Lai Massacre. And while the separation of kids from their parents may have sparked an international human rights debate, this is not the film to settle it. illegally, including those arriving with young children in tow.
Lionsgate dumped domestic rights early on, leaving Sony to release a film that couldn’t be more timely given the spike in attention around Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy toward any and all who enter the U.S. Considering how rare it is that an intelligent, topical action movie comes along, there might be reason to question whether “Soldado” stands a chance at the box office (Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” earned a modest $46.9 million in 2015, although it seems to have found its audience in the interim).
