Universal Soldier: Regeneration
4/5
So there are these terrorists who are looking to cause a nuclear holocaust unless the President releases prisoners, if not his children will die and the Chernobyl nuclear reaction goes bomb! These terrorists are ready for what they might throw at them as they have a bad ass UniSol on their side in the form of Andrei the Pitbull. He isn't a normal UniSol, he is a Next Gen UniSol, an elite fighter who is unstoppable. So what do the good guys do to stop the situation? They want to reactive the apparently only one who can stop them, Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). And as if that was not enough, the bad guys have managed to get a hold of his arch-enemy Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) to try and stop him.
Phew that is a long description, and it probably sounds a little on the dumb side? Well it kind of is, but Universal Soldier wasn't exactly a film you were to take seriously in the first place. What set the original aside is it had great action, the story wasn't bad, it was actually engaging at times and it had two awesome leads in Van-Damme and Lundgren and they delivered some of their best performances. I wont mention Universal Solider: The Return, we will pretend that does not exist. I consider this to be the real sequel to the original.
Now the plotline is average, the story is average, but it does work. What really made this such an enjoyable and engaging film is the amazing action and really good cinematography. This film is a direct to DVD effort but it is just too good for that! I would have loved to have seen this on the big screen, it really does belong there. The action is really mind blowing at times and it is done so well. Now Van-Damme isn't exactly in this a lot, he comes in more in the second half. But the first half really does a good job of setting everything up and it is really good. Andrei is a great badie, he has a good presence and he really kicked some major ass. Van-Damme was awesome, his acting was good, and there is this one long sequence where he does VANDAMMAGE! It was awesome, and it really delivered! The entire film was worth the watch for just that. When Lundgren shows up for his cameo, the excitement is there. They have a fantastic showdown, they both looked to be in good shape for their age and they delivered the goods as I knew they would.
The only real cons here are some plot holes which show up, and the fact that it would have been nice to have more of Van Damme and Lundgren. But this really is an above average direct to DVD action film. It looks like it had a bigger budget then it did, it really is just too damn good. As a fan of the original, this was a great sequel and it made this UniSol fan very happy. It was nice to see a film that felt like it was made for me. As I mentioned the action is fantastic and I gotta say this film is better then some action-equse stuff that gets released in the theater. It was left open for another one and if they do the same things right, I am on board.
Surprised
How would you compare the final fight in the original compared to the Regeneration? Does Regeneration's final showdown hold up to the badass barnyard brawl?