Soulcatcher review: Underwhelming actioner misses the mark

Soulcatcher is a Polish action thriller focused on a military contractor hired to recover a dangerous weapon that turns humans into mindless killing machines. What begins as a regular job turns personal when his brother falls victim to the device. It is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

Soulcatcher follows a group of mercenaries sailing to their next mission aboard a small vessel. Brothers Robert aka Fang, and Piotr Kiel helm the team and are supposed to extract a woman named Eliza Mazur from an island as she has been photographing the war crimes of a man named General Yousif Mamadov.

They reach a village and discover piles of bodies. The group shoots down guards and finds Eliza. Fang secures the drive with the photos, and they prepare to retreat. Suddenly, they are attacked by vicious island natives, who seem to have no sense of what they are doing.

We see Mamadov using a wave-emitting weapon that transforms all humans in its path into vicious killing machines. As the team scrambles, Piotr falls victim to the weapon and attacks Fang. 

The latter is forced to kill Piotr to save himself. He then rendezvous with the sole surviving member of the team, Harbir, and calls his pilot friend Krzysztof to get them off the island. Eliza, however, decides to stay behind.

Back in Poland, they are briefed about the weapon known as Soulcatcher by Jan, an ambitious politician. It was supposed to be an experimental technology to treat and cure cancer but started turning people into mindless and violent beings.

Jan asks Fang to put a team together and recover the weapon. They are also tasked with eliminating its creator, Professor Witold Mazur (Eliza’s father). Unfortunately, a mean twist awaits them.

Performances

Unfortunately, the acting in Soulcatcher is nothing to rave about. No one stands out, including the protagonist, Piotr Witkowski (Fang). Coming from his memorable stint in another Netflix production, Lesson Plan, he fails to make an impact in this film.

His performance as Fang is too wooden and isn’t believable concerning the events occurring around him. The rest of the supporting cast is mediocre at best.

However, some moments featuring Sebastian Stankiewicz, Aleksandra Adamska, and Vanish Luthra are entertaining to get through.

Positives

Soulcatcher does well to establish the urgency of the situation and does justice to its team of mercs with just enough character development.

The best moments of the film are when the team is together. Action-wise, Solucatcher isn’t outstanding but does well to keep you engrossed in it. Some of the stuntwork is quite impressive.

Narratively, the first act reels you in brilliantly. The set-up is great, the stakes are high and the team getting together is exciting.

Negatives

Unfortunately, this is where Soulcatcher starts falling apart. The writing becomes extremely predictable, and the villain twist is all but obvious. Also, Jan’s character is a typical bad guy with evil intentions and no relevant explanations for it.

The plot focuses more on political propaganda than the mercenaries fighting hordes of mindless zombified people (which would have been so much more exciting). This makes for very inconsistent pacing and doesn’t let you immerse yourself in the story.

There are some continuity errors, questionable VFX, and poorly choreographed fight sequences that hinder the experience further. Furthermore, the romantic angle between Fang and Eliza seems quite unnecessary.

Also, the titular weapon that is always a topic of discussion isn’t used enough to really show its devastating capabilities.

Verdict

Soulcatcher isn’t terrible but had so much potential that it doesn’t tap into If you’re looking for a new action film to pass the time, it is worth a watch once.

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