Theme: Cyborgs

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012) – Scott Adkins

The last Universal Soldier movie had shades of B movie quality, but this one takes it to another level. It’s got really bad POV camerawork for a start – not a million miles from Scott Adkin’s barely-watchable zero-budget movie One More Shot.

While the last movie never caught fire but dwindled in an area that made us think it could be about to catch fire; this movie doesn’t even hit that spot – the whole thing is flat from start to finish, making it a chore to watch, and that’s saying something coming from someone who is such a fan of this genre that I made a website dedicated to it.

Some of the action scenes are so mixed up with CGI they look cartoony.

Some of the concepts are pretty cool, kind of like waking someone up in The Matrix, but when white noise is the favoured sound effect and flashing light is the favoured visual effect, it couldn’t have been executed much worse if they tried.

It gets a bit gruesome too, when explicitly chopping off bodyparts with an axe.

It gets slightly interesting around half way through, as Scott Adkins’ character starts digging into his past, trying to remember who he was, what he did, and who his family’s murderer is. But it’s still very cold and disjointed – I can’t rate it any higher than barely Watchable. It was really a chore to watch this far – I only did it for the benefit of this review.
Scott Adkins’ first serious fight scene, a little over an hour into this movie – after the car chase – started off boring, but it soon got tasty when it became apparent that Adkins’s character is a far superior fighter to the most modern UNISOL – the main antagonist – from the previous movie, played by Andrei Arlovski. Does this mean Adkins is in fact the best of all the UNISOLs? Is he capable of beating the whole crew including Van Damme? Now it’s getting slightly interesting – just a shame we’re already an hour in and have had to endure a barely watchable movie up until this point. The back end of the movie is more comfortably Watchable, pushing on So-So, but still quite cold & gloomy.

Scott Adkins is the main character in this movie. He’s the main protagonist. After him, Jean-Claude Van Damme appears to be the main antagonist, for most of the movie, although he may actually be a good guy. He doesn’t get much screen time, but is still one of the main characters after Adkins. Andrei Arlovski also gets a fair amount of screen time as the main active handyman working for Van Damme. Dolph Lundgren also makes a few appearances – he appears to be second in command of the guys working in Van Damme’s crew of freed UNISOLs. You may have also noticed Roy Jones Jr – possibly the greatest boxer of all time (in the TV era, under Queensberry rules) – having a scrap with Andrei Arlovski in the UNISOL mess hall. After getting beaten up by Arlovski, then pummelled by the whole crew, Van Damme steps in and shoots him dead. Honestly, I thought I saw him, but then I thought that’s not possible – then I saw the rolling credits at the end and yes, it really was him. That’s probably the coolest thing about this movie.

In summary, I’m going to rate this movie Watchable, owing to its So-So second half. I’m being a bit generous with the rating here, because the first half is probably best described as Unwatchable, so it seems a bit unfair to the other movies rated Watchable which are a bit better than this one, and the other movies rated Unwatchable which are really no worse than this one, if focusing on the first hour. The second half is really its saving grace, and is my only excuse for rating this movie Watchable.

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) – Jean-Claude Van Damme

The basic concept is a good one but the script and cinematography never catch fire, they seem a bit soul-less, a bit like a B movie. The UNISOLs are meant to be cold, not the whole movie.

This movie lacks any significant female role. It had potential for a bit of warmth with the introduction of a non-UNISOL soldier played very well by Mike Pyle, giving Andrei Arlovski‘s latest generation of UNISOL a run for his money. But just as Pyle was growing into his role he got killed off. Interesting plot twist at the very end though, as Pyle’s character appears to have been cloned to create a load of new UNISOLs – this whets the appetite for the fourth & final movie in the saga (Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning, 2012) which brings back Van Damme & Arlovski while also co-starring Scott Adkins, but unfortunately does not feature Pyle so the ending to Regeneration is a bit of phony cliffhanger.

Dolph Lundgren does well in his return to the Universal Soldier movie series, as of course does Jean-Claude Van Damme – the main star of every movie in the series except the last (Day Of Reckoning) where Adkins takes over as the main protagonist since Van Damme is getting quite old by this time (in his early 50s) while active soldiers in the real world are generally young (with elastic bodies and impressionable minds). It’s just a shame they’re working with a weak script and deadpan cinematography, so I can’t rate it higher than So-So even if the genre, stars and concept are all excellent.

Cyborg (1989) – Jean-Claude Van Damme

Cyborg is a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic action drama starring a young Jean-Claude Van Damme just one year after his breakout movie Bloodsport.

Due to the amount of pain & suffering depicted, including plenty of murder & torture, this movie could qualify as borderline horror. The most gruesome shots are omitted but there’s still enough unpleasantry to warrant a bit of fast-forwarding.

Van Damme plays a ‘slinger’ called Gibson who helps get people out of a ruined New York City. He stumbles across a female cyborg (a robotics-enhanced human, like Robocop without the strength & weaponry) played adequately by Dayle Haddon. She needs help getting to Atlanta to deliver vital information to doctors so they can make a cure for the plague that’s ravaged the world.

He also stumbles across another female, played terribly callously & nonchalently by Deborah Richter, with an outwardly-confident nervous twitch, not dissimilar to the demeanour of an adult industry worker – no surprise therefore that she has multiple scenes of nudity here. She tags along with Van Damme’s character because she’s otherwise quite helpless in this scary wasted world, plus she’s trying to convince him to help the cyborg deliver the cure to Atlanta.

Along the way, Van Damme’s character Gibson faces a ruthless gang of pirates led by a guy called Fender (played very convincingly by Vincent Klyn) who rejoices in misery and wants to own the cure for himself. The same guy also murdered Gibson’s family, so Gibson has a vendetta to fulfil.

Due to its originality and its frequent action, with a fair bit of quality, while being let down by plenty of slow scenes with empty filler content that ought to have been condensed out, and due to the overwhelming amount of horror genre infesting this movie, I rate it So-So / Lower-OK from a smooth action hero movie fan’s perspective. It’s more than Watchable, but only just.

Fun fact: this movie was put together using the sets & costumes of the abandoned Masters Of The Universe 2 plus an abandoned Spider-Man movie. Due to budget issues, those movies were scrapped even though a lot of money had already been spent on them, so they made this movie Cyborg to put those sets & costumes to good use and it turned out to be quite a hit – well played Cannon!

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) – Van Damme, Goldberg and Michael Jai White

This movie offers a novel twist on the already creative concept established in the original, while also featuring strong new co-stars in Bill Goldberg and Michael Jai White. This is actually the fourth movie in the Universal Soldier franchise, but the second & third did not feature Jean-Claude Van Damme or anyone else of note (the main protagonist in both was Matt Battaglia) so you’ll be forgiven for watching the first movie then jumping straight to this one – the fourth.

We don’t see enough of wrestling superstar Goldberg in this kind fast action movie – he makes a very convincing tough guy. Plus, this is easily one of Michael Jai White’s better performances – the robotic superiority-complex role matches his real life demeanour.

Overall I rate this a Decent movie – it’s a bit less of a revelation than the original but still quite creative with a fresh new concept, and features multiple action superstars, but on the downside the plot is a bit one dimensional – the script could have easily been developed more to make it an even better movie. There are multiple females in this movie, including a reporter and a fellow UNISOL, but none of them are particularly worth mentioning – they all deliver bland performances.

Fun fact: this was actually Van Damme’s last widely-released-in-cinemas English-language movie until 2 and a half decades later, when he released Darkness Of Man in 2024 (excluding movies where he wasn’t the main star, such as The Expendables 2 in 2012). Maybe he wasn’t totally playing ball with Hollywood’s sickest shenanigans, but they eventually rewarded him for keeping quiet during the deceptions of the 2020 era? Or maybe his movies had only a small niche audience? The fact that Inferno (1999) had only a limited cinematic released is odd, and the fact that The Order (2001) went direct to video is outrageous.

Further Sequels

If you enjoyed the original Universal Soldier movie from 1992, as well as this one – Universal Soldier: The Return – from 1999, which is the second one starring Van Damme; then you’ll be pleased to know there are a couple more decent Universal Soldier movies to enjoy after this one.

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) rekindles the rivalry between Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, then they both come back again for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) with the addition of Scott Adkins as the main protagonist in the final movie. Both of these movies from 2009 & 2012 also make a significant role for Andrei Arlovski, the former UFC heavyweight champion who still holds the record for the most wins in UFC heavyweight history to this day.