CobraLOrd0
I'm debating right now in my head which movie was better, this one or Universal Soldier 2, The Return. Objectively speaking as a movie this one is better, but if we put the Universal Soldier in the equation then Universal Soldier the Return is a better Universal Soldier movie and not because it has JVCD, but because it is in the Universal Soldier universe. This one is nothing like Universal Soldier. There are not even Universal Soldier inspired tunes, theme songs! Acting is hardly bearable. The girl wears a frightened + sexy expression in almost every single scene, so as to appear cute. JVCD and Lundgren appear for ~5 minutes in the entire movie combined!! Gunplay is probably the worst EVER i have seen in a movie. It is comical, it seriously resembles The Naked Gun movies where Nielsen and the enemy were shooting at each other from a 3 meter range (there is a take in this film between protagonist and Lundren where this is EXACTLY what happens and even worse now that i think of it). Cinematography that will make you cry, with a plethora of scenes that will certainly give you seizures (i was covering my eyes for about 3 minutes of the entire film). The story is ridiculous, makes barely any sense, not that the plot ever stops to focus a bit on dialogue and to what's going on. The movie is utterly semi-devoid of dialogue. Scene after scene depicts either memories or brutal, sadomazochistic violence. The violence in this movie is over the top, just a little below Sin City. The only good aspect was the choreography, i really liked the fighter guy (Andrei Arlovski) that hunts the protagonist to kill him, he had some nice moves. Fighting feels brutal and authentic, you think it's real, but it's a trap, it's so fake. Yet, still there are some nice fights that keep you from getting bored. The rest of the movie is plain boring. Even some special effects and cgi are poorly made. I cannot believe how the critics gave an aggregate rating of 58/100! WARNING: This isn't a universal Soldier movie by any stretch of the imagination!
Rating: 3/10 - Bad - For choreography & bearable acting. This movie will pretty much only appeal to sadistically loving violence fans.
The_Phantom_Projectionist
Three years ago, director John Hyams' UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION breathed new life into a thought-dead franchise and thereby made one of the best action pictures of the year. To say that I was interested in seeing this follow-up is an understatement: with a good deal of the previous one's cast and crew returning, along with the new additions of martial arts' "it" guy Scott Adkins and cult fight choreographer Larnell Stovall, this one looked like a surefire topper to its immediate prequel and another great action outing. Did the movie live up to my high expectations? ...well, at least partially. This is, without question, a great action outing with some of the better fight scenes put out this year. However, the same way that REGENERATION was a huge departure from the style of its bouncier predecessors, so too is DAY OF RECKONING a departure from the standard action genre as we know it, with a storyline so far removed from what I was expecting that it took a bit of time for me to contemplate whether it counted for or against the movie. Overall, this one's definitely worth checking out and even buying, but depending on your expectations, it counts as the end of the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER franchise.The story: a husband and father (Adkins, UNDISPUTED 3) is beaten half to death and sees his family murdered before him by Luc Devereaux, the maverick Unisol (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Recovering from his injuries and plagued by inexplicable hallucinations, he sets out to untangle the mystery behind the killing and exact vengeance on Devereaux.For those of you who watched the last film, you'll glean from summary that things do not neatly pick up from where the story left off. Looking at the cast list and film poster, you'll no doubt also wonder what the heck Dolph Lundgren and Andrei Arlovski are doing in this picture, since they'd recently been killed off. And as a matter of fact, why is Luc now killing people? Questions like these, along with several others presented by the film's narrative, have flustered enough viewers for them to declare this a "semi sequel" that's not necessarily part of the same story arc. Me, I think it is a proper sequel, and that we're to assume that a good deal of time has passed since the previous flick and this one. Luc Devereaux has become an enigmatic figure to both allies and enemies with a rather grandiose master plan. The character played by Andrei Arlovski is not the same as his last one. And as for Dolph Lundgren...well, he was cloned once before, wasn't he? I've been able to placate myself with these answers, but people who don't want this kind of ambiguity are probably going to be disappointed.Personally, what jarred me more than any part of the plot was the style of the movie. With its numerous storyline twists, hallucination scenes, and insane amounts of bloodletting, this is very nearly a horror film. Having the characters rediscover parts of their personal history has always been a component of the series, but in DAY OF RECKONING, it's an uninhibitedly dark process, complete with psycho-thriller imagery. I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about it, since this - more than any of the character-related aspects - makes the film feel wholly different from its predecessors. With that said, it does inspire some decent intensity out of the performers. Despite his third-name billing, Scott is clearly the lead in this movie and carries things well, giving a strong performance and again demonstrating why he is the new top action hero in all respects even if Hollywood hasn't caught on yet. Van Damme has surprisingly few scenes in the movie, but those he does partake in are good: he doesn't even need to speak anymore to get his points across, as demonstrated in any scene he shares with his Unisol subordinates (he has those, by the way). Dolph Lundgren has even less screen time than Van Damme, but does okay with another crazy monologue. Andrei Arlovski doesn't have much to act, and love interest Mariah Bonner isn't very memorable.Production-wise, the movie is strong. Action-wise, the film is a powerhouse of extremely brutal hand-to-hand action. Is it as good as I had been expecting? ...it might be better to point that it wasn't *what* I was expecting. After their first collaboration in the aforementioned UNDISPUTED 3 set the bar for all future martial arts flicks, I had been expecting that Adkins and Larnell Stovall would present us with more lightning-speed martial arts wizardry, but what they delivered instead are brawls. Violent, gritty, gory brawls. I think this had to do with the physical constraints of many of the performers, and in a way, it's disappointing...but then again, the fights tend to be better than good and easy to appreciate for both the physicality of the performers and the gamely shooting and editing style of the filmmakers. My personal favorite brawl is the second showdown between Adkins and Arlovski, wherein they beat the hell out of each other with baseball bats. While not the barn-burner I had been hoping it to be, Adkins vs. Van Damme during the finale is definitely the best fight the two have had - beating the snot out of their outings in THE SHEPHERD: BORDER PATROL and ASSASSINATION GAMES.Whether or not you appreciate the movie, I think, depends on both how much you enjoyed the last film and how far you think the action genre can be bent until the filmmakers have to make a choice whether they want to make an action film or a horror flick. The strength of this one's action scenes determined that it could be bent pretty far this time, but overall, I could have done without the change in direction. While there's nothing in the film that I don't explicitly dislike, the things I'm uncertain about keep this one from a higher score.
Maziun
*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERSThis movie is a very fresh take on an old action/sci-fi franchise. The tone of this movie is completely different from previous movies. It feels like an horror/thriller movie now. There are references to video games and "Apocalypse now". Scott Adkins is a main hero now , while Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren basically play 5 minute episodes now. Fans of Jean and Dolph will probably be disappointed. Adkins tries to find out who and why murdered his family. The story starts intriguing , but the more the movie moves forward the plot becomes confusing . Why is Van Damme working with Lundgren ? They were enemies before , so what changed ? And Lundgren died in earlier movie ,so why he is alive now ? Is he a clone ? What's the government part in all of this ? What's with all the clones ? What was the point of the hallucinations ?None of this is answered and the final result is one big mess. I like to figure out things on my own , but the writers should really give the audience more information. Otherwise the movie feels like a badly connected set of twists. Also the characters are completely bland and uninteresting.Director John Hyams provides the movie with some great action scenes. He knows how to create suspense and excitement. I would love to see him make a big budget action movie. The R-rating is used fully and wisely. Too bad that most of the action happens only in second half of the movie. Also , the movie sometimes drags during dialogues.Overall , it's quite entertaining in places and ambitious movie , but the bad screenplay drags it down. I give it 3/10.
