This is the Universal Soldier sequel we’ve been waiting for. It’s not just that it brings back both of the original stars. It actually undoes the nonsense of Universal Soldier: The Return.
We pick up Luc Devereaux (Jean Claude Van Damme) really dealing with the aftermath of his experience. None of this “reversing the process” crap, although I must admit that was my favorite part of The Return. They reversed the process to make Luc normal again, but they never explained how they reversed the process of being dead.
Anyway, Van Damme and Lundgren are back! Van Damme gives his best performance ever, a really deep, somber and melancholy aftermath of a superhero. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for the actual post-action hero, or maybe it’s just showing he can play a more dimensional character now. I think JCVD really opened up his acting and man, Van Damme still has the moves. You see him doing the fights, at least inasmuch as the moves they would ever let the lead actor do. Dolph Lundgren is still massive and powerful.
The new guy fights well too. Andrei Arlovski is an awesome discovery. Regeneration has really good crazy action for a straight to video movie, and interesting enough talk for science fiction in between fights. Of course, the newest Unisol program just made it all worse and of course, the only one who can stop it is Luc! The idea of asking personality questions to Unisols just amuses me.
The action all takes place in empty factories and forest camps, locations they can control on a budget. It looks low budget, but they use it. It’s well shot, using the foreground and background in the full widescreen scope frame. It’s not the bright, sunlit Roland Emmerich Universal Soldier, but it works. It’s ultimately a melancholy, somber mission.
The actors playing the evil scientists do it with fun, so they don’t take themselves too seriously.
There’s a great buildup to Andrew Scott’s return. You don’t sense the history between Scott and Devereux and Scott doesn’t flash back to his crazy jingoistic personality, but we know it. The fight we’ve been waiting for isn’t a muscle flexing tank top battle like before. They’re fully suited but it’s a big ass fight.
John Hyams and his dad Peter know how to shoot a fight scene and edit it with continuity. They’re not just throwing wild punches and kicks and chopping it up later. I just wish the Van Damme/Lundgren fight was the centerpiece of the film, and it ends too quickly and easily, but Van Damme fighting UFC’s Arlovski is pretty cool too.
You don’t have to love the original Universal Soldier to like Regeneration, but we do so it’s great. Let’s say it delivers maximum Van Dammage! I always love using that term.
The Blu Ray actually looks really good. It’s totally clear so you can see all the detail of the grimy cheap locations, and the weathered faces of the Unisols. It shows that a straight to video movie can look clear and crisp on Blu Ray, so all those other releases have no excuse.
