Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009)

To me, this movie is perfection.

It is a performances centric movie

From my favorite movies..

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

When terrorists threaten nuclear catastrophe, the world's only hope is to reactivate decommissioned Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux. Rearmed and reprogrammed, Deveraux must take on his nemesis from the original Universal Soldier and a next-generation "UniSol". I've always been a big fan of this Franchise especially 1 and 2 but Universal Soldier: Regeneration makes the Series from a B-Movie to an A-Movie it's dark, slow, silent and above all well made with some insane action sequences, suprises and lots of terrific fight sequences between JCVD, Dolph Lundgren and Andrei Arlovski. This is an action, thriller, horror and sci-fi film that takes a 90's Fun Series from over the top to serious and twisted things of the 00's. (10/10)

I enjoy Universal Soldier immensely. It's one of my favorite Action films. Even Universal Soldier II: The Return was fun in an extremely cheesy way, but this tends to suck the life out of everything. They completely ignore everything that happened in Universal Soldier: The Return and I can sort of understand that. It was fun, but it's not exactly a worthy sequel, but neither is this. Van Damme is stuck doing counseling sessions for the majority of the first half. I actually enjoyed that portion. Van Damme trying to become humanized was fairly riveting stuff and he pulled it off like a champ. My problem with the direction of Van Damme is that he is merely a supporting character here. Van Damme himself is solid, but I felt they underutilized him. He's still the hero, but now the reluctant hero. He's worn down, cynical, and ridden with guilt. I dug that part of his character, but there wasn't enough for my liking. Dolph Lundgren is even more wasted than Van Damme. I do like Dolph, even if he tends to make a lot of mediocre DTV films. He's always had presence, and here is no different. He has 20 minutes or so, here approximately. He was fun as Sgt. Scott, but it felt like a fun nostalgia act than anything else. Andrei Arlovski felt like a circus attraction. He was physically imposing, menacing, but he wasn't all that for me. The supporting crew did what they had to do well, but nobody really stood out. Now, the fight between Van Damme and Lundgren is where I give the film its main praise. It's a tad longer than the one in the original and they have more to play with; I won't spoil it for you but it gets downright vicious. In the end; this fails due to not having Van Damme & Lundgren at the forefront of things, and the inconsistent pacing. Final Thoughts: I didn't hate it, but it was disappointingly mediocre. I fully grasp that Van Damme is no longer what he once was, but he still has the it factor. I simply wasn't interested in the happenings when Van Damme & Lundgren were off screen. A few moving scenes, and the awesome fight between Van Damme & Lundgren is not enough for me to make a recommendation. It won't ruin your life if you watch it, but you'll most likely be a bit saddened by it. I know I was.4/10

"Universal Soldier" is one of those films that shouldn't have any kind of sequels, unless if they were made by Roland Emmerich and after two or three years of gap between the movies. No, if my memory doesn't betray me there's was one in the 1990's with no one from the original cast (?) perhaps it was the way it was translated here to look like a sequel when it wasn't; other in 1999 with Van Damme, very forgettable; and then this one in 2007, bringing back Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. Of all the following episodes this was the one that worked better despite all the absurd and the weak plot. It's completely watchable, a guilty pleasure so to speak.The plot concerns about a terrorist group that kidnapped the sons of a political authority in Russia and they also invaded Chernobyl with the purpose of blowing the plant if their demands won't be followed. Best of all of this is that the terrorists have a trained little army of indestructible soldiers that don't feel pain, lethal machines whose mission is to destroy the enemy. Among them there's the clone of Andrew Scott (Lundgren) that doesn't seem to obey even their "new creators". The other side reprogrammed Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) to help them in this mission but he has problems of his own, since he's not the same fighter he was years ago. Some quality action and impressive fight scenes makes of "Universal Soldier: Regeneration" a movie with good attributes, nice to be appreciated. However, the most awaited part of it is quite embarrassing if not disappointing. Five minutes of screen time and that's it the fight between Deveraux and Scott and it's not exciting, awesome or fun to see; the conclusion of it was funny though, to let people wondering what just happened. If you manage to overlook the slippings and trippings of the plot (blowing the thing or not they all are gonna die, I mean they're on Chernobyl for crying out loud! Highly contaminated!!!) it can be quite a good way to spend the day. For the most part and I believe this is quite unanimous you'll be saying that the first film was the best ever and this is just a poor sequel. 6/10

When a terrorist group takes over part of Chernobyl and threatens radioactive death if their demands are not met (and they kidnapped the son and daughter of a prominent politician to boot), Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) is called back into active duty. Now in a kind of rehab/therapy where he's learning to live again, he must retrain for combat. He faces his toughest challenge yet, as the terrorists used stolen technology to create the ultimate emotionless, unstoppable killing machine, dubbed "The Freak" by U.S. forces (Orlovsky). But they also open Pandora's box and resurrect Deveraux's old nemesis Andrew Scott (Dolph). Deveraux has his work cut out for him this time around...It's actually pretty shocking how good Universal Soldier: Regeneration truly is. It doesn't even really HAVE to be this good. Far from your average "dumb" action movie, this seems to be a rejection of that notion, striking an excellent, precise balance between melancholy intelligence and frighteningly brutal violence.Regeneration appears to be a reaction to The Return. Almost as if the filmmakers were embarrassed by the badness and silliness of that unfortunate outing, the swung the pendulum back the other direction (almost too much), creating a dark, adult, nihilistically violent creation, but it's not without some emotion and humanity as well. Just a great job done all around.Everything from the production values, to the acting, to the action, and everything else in between is light years beyond The Return, making it truly a travesty that that turkey was released theatrically in the U.S., while this wasn't. Regeneration is well-shot and well-directed by John Hyams, son of director Peter. Hyams treats the material seriously and with respect, and everything that happens plotwise makes perfect sense. It's all idea-based (even retaining the best ideas from the first Universal Soldier film), not throwaway action. In the hands of another director, this could have been half-heartedly slagged off as "just another Universal Soldier movie". But the fact that Hyams does not do that, or even come close, is totally refreshing and comes as a great relief for true action fans.Hyams hits all the right notes - from utilizing the bleak Bulgarian locations to their fullest potential, to bringing the Universal Soldier franchise into the present day. Using the Navy Seal-like soldiers strongly reminiscent of the U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the uncompromising nature of war, as a background to amplify the audience's fears about our own mortality. After all, even our best soldiers are no match for their SuperSoldiers. We'll definitely be watching to see what Hyams does in the future, as he seems to have a strong grasp of how to do muscular action.Undoubtedly, many consumers probably thought that this IS just another Universal Soldier installment - it's almost a shame that this movie doesn't have another title. Having been burned on The Return, consumers might not know what they're truly getting here - something much, much different and worthwhile.Van Damme puts in an excellent performance, Dolph is always awesome, and Orlovsky is perfectly cast as the scary freak. All the actors in the film do a pitch-perfect job. A definite win for everyone involved, we enthusiastically support Universal Soldier: Regeneration.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com