A super soldier genetically enhanced for maximum power; a living, breathing killing machine. The soldier escapes from a laboratory and must be stopped. Who is the real villain, the soldier or the scientists who created him? The new action film “Dark Asset” knows audiences have been here before and doesn’t seem to care. Writer/director Michael Winnick plays with time, and fills the screen with gunplay, hand-to-hand fights, and an almost constantly moving camera, all in the hopes of distracting from the silliness of it all.

Byron Mann (who is engaging but saddened with bad dialogue) stars as an ex-Special Forces soldier who was recruited by a tired “secret government operation”. Run by Dr. Cain (a seriously slumming Robert Patrick, looking completely bored), the project inserts a microchip into the subject’s brain, allowing the mad doctor to control their ideas; guiding them by the power of suggestion. Sorry filmmakers, we already saw “Universal Soldier.”

As the film opens, Mann’s character escapes the laboratory by killing all the men guarding him. Ending up behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, our hero(?) enters a hotel bar where he meets a beautiful woman (Helena Mattsson). Charming her the best he can, Mann proceeds to explain his backstory and the film becomes a barrage of badly structured flashbacks that introduce viewers to the many sleeper agents who were casualties of Dr. Crain’s secret government experiments.

With all of the action and borderline Science Fiction aspects to the story, “Dark Asset” is a film without a pulse. The fight sequences (what should be the main draw for a film such as this) are clumsily handled. While Mann is certainly an accomplished martial artist, his skills go unchallenged due to uninspired choreography. The movements are too slow and the stunt team seems to be lumbering their way through the action. Every fight seems like a filmed rehearsal.

The picture is too talky for an action piece and will alienate fans looking for a good slice of excitement. Winnick’s script spends a lot of time having characters chat over the action, with Mann’s soldier explaining every detail of every plot thread. As a filmmaker, Winnick doesn’t appear to have the confidence to let his tale play out on its own. In truth, there isn’t much there and perhaps the “narration” was done in the hope of giving the story more fuel to fill the ninety-minute run time. Sadly, the film comes up empty, grinding to a halt just as it gets going.

A B-movie actioner can be a good time and I’m sure that’s what Winnick had in mind. The bad dialogue, slow action, and Z-grade look prevent any fun to be had. The screenplay is filled to the brim with predictability and the audience will be ten steps ahead of every reveal. There isn’t a surprise or an original idea to be found.

Undone by a lack of budget, laughable dialogue, and a director seemingly void of skill, “Dark Asset” flatlines from the very beginning and continues to bore its audience until it lumbers toward its unsatisfying conclusion.