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Universal Soldier Regeneration – Movie Review
The Universal Soldier franchise has it’s third movie in the main series and this time it’s bringing back the origional stars alongside some new ones. This time around the main character is a new Uni-Sol, a new generation of the origional project named NGU and played by MMA and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei ‘The Pitbull’ Arlovski. The new NGU has been developed by a rebel faction who took the origional technology and enhanced it to a higher level. With their one man killing machine in hand the rebels gain control of a nuclear power plant and use it make their requests known.
With the new NGU the goverment and army find their usual soldiers and Uni-Sol’s are unable to reclaim the powerplant which means that Jean Claude Van Damme has to return as Luc Deveraux a retired Uni-Sol who is used to try and battle the NGU. Also making is reappearance from the origional movie is Dolph Lundgren as Andrew Scott, who is brought back into active duty, but still refuses to play by the rules.
The movie is directed by John Hyams and hes done a good job with the look of the movie, the story may be somewhat formulaic but for he movie to have any merit and mark it out from the previous sequel and TV movies they really had to do something special, and bringing back the origional stars is a smart move. So the movie looks pretty good, with some nice special effects and a muted colour palette for various scenes which helps you to notice the shifts in viewpoint, as it’s a Universal Soldier movie no real acting chops are required for the Uni-Sol’s but Andrei Arlovski is suitably menacing as the new NGU and his MMA background makes the fights scenes look legitimate and interesting for mixed martial arts fans. Van Damme isn’t required to do much either as the retired Uni-Sol who has to go back to work and Dolph Lundgren brings the menace that was present in the origional movie.
Overall Universal Soldier Regeneration is an average action movie, that will probably only appeal to fans of the origional movie, Van Damme fans or MMA fans intersting to see how Andrei Arlovski does in his first big movie role. Nice sets, solid direction and cinematophy add a nice visual appeal, and make it a good rental for fans of the original movie, otherwise science fiction or action movie fans can probably find a better fix for your vices elsewhere.
