“Soulcatcher” is a solid if somewhat flatly-directed shoot-em-up thriller from Poland, a movie interesting to fans of the “special skills” commando “extraction” genre chiefly due to the ways it differs from such slam-bang action features in The West.

There’s this gadget that beams immobilizing, maddening rays at foes and it was invented in Poland. It’s been spirited away to Romania, apparently by way of Chechnya.

So a Polish Iraq War vet (Piotr Witkowski) who now leases his services to the government as a mercenary is sent to get it, and bring back the Polish scientist (Jacek Pondiedzialek) who invented it and maybe his easy-on-the-eys daughter Eliza (Aleksandra Adamska).

Romanian warlords and Chechen generals stand in his way. And Interpol could be...a problem. But no worries, he’s got his team, and government backing from a favorite cabinet minister (Jacek Koman). What could go wrong?

The conventions of the genre dictate that at least one member of his “team” has to be named “Bull” and live in a house full of dogs, one’s got to be a pilot who can fly anything — including drones (Sebastian Stankiewicz). And that sniper (Michalina Olszanska)? Check out her haircut. Every team needs a lethally efficient lesbian shooter.

Much of the energy expended on the screenplay was spent on wrong-footing the viewer, not letting us know exactly where were are in the opening gambit (a very primitive Romania) — that bit of action that sets up action pictures, from James Bond and “Mission: Impossible” installments to lesser. fare — this rescue that goes wrong, that one that goes right…with a twist.

A “brother” will die, as well as comrades in arms. And our hero, “Code-name: Fang (LOL),” will finish one part of the job only to see new foes rise up to be dealt with.

“This was Mission: Impossible!” the government minister enthuses (in Polish with subtitles, or dubbed), at one point.

No. No it wasn’t.

The firefights and brawls are perfunctorily staged and shot. The pacing is limp and the coherence of the plot — just what the hell DOES this Soulcatcher thingy do? It seems selective in how it impacts victims — isn’t up to par.

Still, I’m always interested in seeing how another culture and another national cinema approaches a genre. With Hollywood refusing to pay its writers and having revenue-sharing issues with writers and actors, I predict we’ll be seeing a lot more Polish, Malaysian, Indian, et al movies on our favorite streaming services in the near future.

Let’s hope most of them are better than “Soulcatcher.”

Rating: TV-MA, violence, profanity

Cast: Piotr Witkowski, Aleksandra Adamska, Jacek Koman, Jacek Poniedzialek, Michalina Olszanska and Sebastian Stankiewicz

Credits: Directed by Daniel Markowicz, scripted by
Dawid Kowalewicz and Daniel Markowicz. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:40