Universal Soldier: Regeneration

Amazingly enough I went into this movie thinking it would be complete crap because of JCVD and Dolph "I can't act" Ludgren, but it was much better than a lot of other action movies, including Terminator: Salvation.

A lot of people might be hesitant because of the conflicting reviews, but ignore the whole "This is bad because it has Jean Claude in it..." stigma and you might be as surprised as I was after watching it. In fact, I found myself watching it a few times again because, through and through, it's an extremely engaging film.

What actually shocked me is that it covers an important social issue of terrorism versus political tyranny; using terrorism to maintain (and gain) freedom as well as capitalist control of armies without nations. Yeah, it's a movie that actually covers something important about sociality.

As a lot of other people pointed out, though, Jean Claude and Dolph only lend their faces for brief (in Dolph's case) and extended (in Jean's case) cameos. This film is not really about the aging action heroes but rather, they play a part in the outcome of things, very similar to Snipe's role in Blade 2.

As for quality...the movie is shot to look like the Bourne Identity and even has a cool chase scene like it, too. All the action is depicted with startling realism and all fist-fights result in such because people either run out of ammo or get too close to use weapons. In other words, all the fight scenes in this movie make a heck of a lot of sense and are very realistic and practical. Added to this, the musical score is extremely fitting to the science-fiction overtones.

Overall, this movie is leaps and bounds better than every other Universal Soldier movie made before it and actually takes itself serious enough to deserve better praise than what it's been receiving.

This was great entertainment, Story:well scripted to avoid the many pitfalls the this kind of movie could have fallen in to. More layering and character development that you could ever expect from a film like this. Acting: no Oscars gonna be won here... but hey it's a JCVD flick and he and the rest of the cast do a good job in it. Action (fights): No Jason Bourne, or Taken, but pretty close!, you can see how much went in to choreography and rehearsal, very well done. Production: Nice cutting, great timing, superb use of location. Maybe the only weakish spot was the score, it sometimes felt out of context and/or under-produced.

Anyway: Director sure knew what he was doing here, and i liked it a lot.

Please Mr Hymas (Sr and Jr?) find a big budget, a great script and go do a Jason Bourne movie!

World wide terrorism is fast becoming the stereotypical plot for new age films. They could be about corrupt inner governments, renegade police or as in this case, rebellious disenchanted rogue soldiers. The film is entitled " Universal Soldier: Regeneration. " This is part three and as with the original premises, dead soldiers who died in armed combat, were stored in cryogenic coffins, revived, repaired and returned to duty. In this third sequel, Russian terrorists have the added help of NGU's or New Generation Universal Soldiers which are improved, re-generated, deadlier soldiers. Dolph Lundgren returns as Andrew Scott and Andrei Arlovski, have kidnapped the children of the Russian Premier. In addition, radical soldiers, have also seized control over the Cernobal nuclear power plant. Together it poses a world wide threat when the rebels promise to detonate a huge bomb there, which will release a massive dangerous radioactive cloud across the world. In response, the governments activate some elite soldiers of their own including their former Universal soldier, Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who has under gone DE-programing, to combat the threat. The film is an improvement over the original in both drama and excellent acting. Ludgren and Van Dammn should be complimented on re-visiting former roles. With sufficient action, excitement and a generous supply of physical confrontation, the movie does a good job of keeping an audience entertained. ****

After the disappointment of Universal 2 I was afraid this would be just as bad or maybe worse. To my surprise it ended up being a pretty good action movie. The story is straight forward. A situation arises and requires the return of Luck (Van Damme). The fighting scenes are pretty well crafted and the return of Lundgren was quite enjoyable. I suppose I need to remind people again that these types of movies are not intended to change the world! They are action movies and should be reviewed as such. As far as the bad, the story is really basic and the movie is a little short. I was pleasantly surprised by the acting overall. Yeah there is almost no dialogue, but Lundgren and Van Damme seemed to have learned a little bit about their craft. I hope Van Damme continues to make these types of movies and I look forward to one of them getting a serious theatrical release. It's been a long times since one of these movies has hit the big screen. I for one would love to support this type of movie.

The opening scene blew me away!! Absolutely amazing action at the beginning. Andrei (Pitbull) Arlovski stole the show with a great action performance. JCVD had a smaller role than the previous film and did a solid performance. I was disappointed that Dolph Lundgren's role was so small but he did a great job. The long fight sequence between Dolph and JCVD had some amazing parts as well.

The action at the beginning is by far the best; yet the film continues to deliver till the very end. I especially appreciate the minimal use of dialog. Extensive dialog was not needed for this film and was not included (useless and excessive dialog drives me nuts in action films).

*************SPECIALIZED CRITIQUE TO FILL SPACE!!****************

My only complaint was the tactics, weapons and armor employed by the US Army forces in the film. The weapons used by the Army forces appear to be the fully automatic M16A1 (with after market banana clips) which was used in the Vietnam War. The Army now uses the M16A4 with a 30 round magazine (slightly curved but not banana style) which is not fully automatic (Burst/Semi/Single) and Infantry are trained to rely primarily on well place single shots leaving the fully auto fire to the 240B or the SAW Gunners.

Additionally the US Army relies heavily on night-time operations thus ALL combat troops are equipped with Night Vision Devices. Mid day attacks are rarely ever performed especially against a heavily embedded enemy force. None of the "good guys" had night vision devices.

The US Army ubiquitously uses the Interceptor System of body armor which utilizes heavy ceramic plates in front and back of the soldier to protect from small arms fire and to minimize wounds from explosions. The soldiers in the film appear to wear simple Kevlar.

Furthermore Recon operations are never performed by a single operator but by small silent teams (2 or 4 men) moving slowly, smoothly and silently together. The lone Recon guy's equipment, weapon, and movements were completely wrong and his equipment made way too much noise.

I guess my main complaint would be the Director didn't do his research when it came to a large portion of his film. This is a common complaint for me in most movies which attempt to show modern US Army tactics and weapons. You would think that with all the unemployed Iraq War veterans out there they could find a few to advise them on their films.

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Ultimately Universal Soldier: Regeneration was an enjoyable film. I read one snobbish review relegating it to "B" movie oblivion yet I found the movie to be better than most "A" action movies coming out of Hollywood.

Congrats to Dolph and JCVD for a great movie I hope to see more films of this quality from both!