Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

With the help of a corrupt scientist (Kerry Shale) and his 'next generation' Universal Soldier (Andrei 'The Pitbull' Arlovski), a group of political terrorists kidnap the Russian prime minister's children and threaten to blow up the Chernobyl power station unless their demands are met. Decommissioned first generation Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is reactivated and tasked with rescuing the hostages, his mission not only pitting him against the new improved 'Uni-Sol', but also his old adversary Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren).A pair of old-school action stars whose best days are behind them, a couple of ex-UFC fighters turned 'actors', and a writer/director/editor who has yet to prove his worth in the action field: not exactly impressive credentials, but somehow this reboot for the Universal Soldier franchise isn't as bad as one might expect. Although John Hyam's plot is hardly groundbreaking stuff, his direction and editing is surprisingly good, meaning that the film succeeds where it matters most: in delivering hard-hitting and very brutal action with plenty of blood and gore.The film starts immediately as it means to go on—with an exhilarating kidnap scene in which plenty of people die horribly, lots of stuff gets destroyed, and Andrei 'The Pitbull' Arlovski has plenty of opportunity to glower menacingly and cause much pain (something that he naturally does rather well). Jean Claude just about manages to keep up with the newcomer proving he still has a few cool moves under his body armour, particularly during the inevitable smack-down against Lundgren (it's hard to believe that they have a combined age of over 100!).Admittedly, the simplistic story-line is all a bit predictable and matters do get a tad dull during the non-action scenes, but any film that features Dolph Lundgren getting his head impaled on a metal pipe and then having his brains blown out with a shotgun has got to be worth a look in my book.

the original universal soldier is an action classic, the second one is the worst movie van damme ever made, but this third installment, has gone back to the roots, and is a brutal, action packed thrill ride, that gladly ignores the second one, and brings back dolph lundgren for one of the best fight scenes I've seen in a long time, brutal, fast, and with a killer ending, the movie looks dark, and the atmosphere grim, but this movie offers some of the best action cinema to come out of Hollywood for a long time, this is the sort of movie i miss, just pure non stop action, but to be honest i think the script this time was pretty good, and is a very worthy sequel to the original movie, a must see action flick

OK so I gave it 10 out of 10.. Why well because this really was as good, if not better than the first movie, in fact this should have been the second film, in the series, as that was pretty terrible.That of course did leave quite a few holes, my advice would be this. If your going to watch Universal Soldier, make sure you leave the second one out, then this will make total sense. Apart from the little mistake, its really very good, a lot of work went into this film and it does show.I loved seeing Dolph Lundgren back in the action, it is good to see him back in more films now, it was pretty spot on, not many words and a great fight scene between the two of them...However I would say this, I do think this is better than the first film, which is a hard act to follow, yeah I know its not the best in the world and I gave it a full score, however I do think its better then the 5 most of the other people on here have given it...My advice is rent it or buy it, keep it because you will want to watch it again, some pretty impressive stunts and fights are on the menu, if you like action, this film is for you.

It's been a while since I've seen a Universal Soldier film, but this film seems to stand apart from all the others as an exceptionally well-crafted entrant to the series. (I've voted 9/10 since I couldn't select 8.5 and I feel the current score is too low.)When you see a JCVD film, you expect to see intense and well-choreographed fight scenes, maybe some gunfights, maybe some explosions, and just generally lots of gratuitous violence without much plot or depth.And considering that JCVD is now going on to 50 years old, I wasn't really expecting a lot from this film. I mean, unless they pulled a Terminator: Salvation and replaced Jean-Claude with a CG actor, I didn't really think the action would be that good (even Arnold's CG fight scenes weren't particularly exciting). And seeing as everything was riding on the action, this had the potential to be a complete dud.However, this film proved me wrong on all counts. By some magic of editing or special effects, we see Jean-Claude as both an aging arthritic veteran as well as a spry killing machine with superhuman reflexes. The stark transformation from one into the other using the UniSol chemical cocktails was astonishing yet believable.Not only that, but the performances given by all the main actors were excellent. From the complex character of the rebel leader (a villainous terrorist but also a fair leader and patriot) to the quirky and megalomaniacal evil scientist to the beautiful and compassionate Dr. Flemming... all were portrayed convincingly and flawlessly. Despite the presence of several familiar Hollywood archetypes, none of the intense performances were overacted or cheesy. But most surprisingly, Jean-Claude and Dolph Lundgren both deliver exceptional performances that take the movie to a whole 'nother level.Lundgren's performance in particular was bone-chilling. In his brief monologue we're given an unnerving glimpse into the twisted psyche of a true psychopath--a scientifically engineered killing machine with no conscience or moral inhibitions. Although his lines are few, they reveal a man facing an existential crisis and gripped by a consuming nihilism, an understandable condition for a soldier robbed of his humanity and now knowing only violence.That's not to say that Universal Soldier: Regeneration is some deep philosophical film. The movie's main focus is still intense action and gratuitous violence. But it's a layered work with nuance and surprisingly well-crafted characters. These small touches give the film subtle flavor and set it apart as an exceptionally thoughtful film for its genre.