“How often do you contemplate the complexity of life?”

Josh’s review: Universal Soldier: Regeneration returns to the world of Luc Deveraux, the O.G. UniSol. When we catch up with him, he is two years into a rehabilitation program, the goal of which is to return him into normal society. I know, I know, wasn’t he already returned to full human status in the last one? NO. Regeneration decided those other Universal Soldier movies didn’t exist, and this is meant to be a direct sequel to the first movie. When watched in that order, instead of chronologically, things make a little more sense. In this one, Jean-Claude Van Damme tries to inject some humanity into Luc by showing him fighting against his years of programming and trying to find meaning to his existence.

Sadly, Luc is pulled back into the Universal Soldier program when a terrorist organization kidnaps the children of a prime minister and sets up shop in the abandoned buildings around the Chernobyl power plant. The Russian and US military forces have 72 hours to rescue these children and stop the terrorists from detonating explosives which will release a deadly radiation cloud. Also, the terrorists have access to a new generation of Universal Soldier even deadlier than the originals.

This movie turns the violence knob up to 11, and I am here for it. I needed to see super-soldiers doing super-soldier stuff! Somehow, the last four movies were lacking in that regard. The UniSols in this movie are actually being used the way they were intended, just like the dam scene from the first movie, as an elite force instead of merchandise that is being prepared for sale.

The improvements in the technology put the old soldiers to shame. Andrei Arlovski plays the big bad Next Generation UniSol, who is under the control of the terrorists. Arlovski is a real life MMA fighter, and he paints an impressive picture with his skills throughout the film. This is something that was severely lacking in the previous installments as exemplified in the serious under-use of Micahel Jai White in The Return. Another MMA fighter, Mike Pyle, plays Captain Kevin Burke, providing us with a sympathetic human character caught in a battle of giants. This injection of young blood energized the franchise once more. A… regeneration if you will.

Director John Hyams has an interesting connection with JCVD, in that his father Peter directed him years before in Timecop and Sudden Death. Peter also serves as the director of photography on this film. He does a decent job, although the Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott (that’s right, Dolph Lundgren is back!) story lines seemed stunted and didn’t allow for much time to develop any feelings for them and their situations. It’s the same with the two children who have been kidnapped; I really just don’t care what happens to them. There were actually a couple times when I forgot they were there. It would have served the film better to eliminate those two characters and focus more on Deveraux, Burke. And if you had to, Scott, although nothing would have been lost to cut him as well. In any case, the action scenes here are furious and fun to watch. The Hyams’ definitely have that portion down to a science.

Once again, this leans into the clone aspect of things, and once again, I again ask why? Why do the clone thing if we are already reanimating dead people? And, why would the doctor working for the leader of the terrorist group go about supplying soldiers if he has the power to clone? I assume this is all just to bring Lundgren back which leads me to another “why?”

This is a solid entry in the franchise and could have served as a good jumping off point for future films. Sadly, it takes a bit of a turn after this one and once again it has been a decade+ since we’ve had a new Universal Soldier movie. John Hyams must have had some of his father’s mojo passed to him, because this is essentially a cookie-cutter ’90s action movie with the brutality of a contemporary action flick. The use of practical effects and even the setting, a big, abandoned industrial campus with pipes and metal stairways and steam is straight from action flicks of the past. Despite its flaws, I’d say this is my favorite film in the franchise.

Justin’s rating: How far we are from the Emmerich era! Not necessarily complaining, though…

Justin’s review: We definitely need a term for a franchise where there are so many reboots and retconned sequels that the audience has to pick-and-choose a head canon of what’s official and what’s not because none of it makes sense when lumped all together. Zelda, Terminator, Halloween, X-Men — all of these are notorious for non-linear optional narratives that keep wiping out or changing what came before.

And you can lump in the Universal Soldier series with that conversation, because for a franchise that has only six films, it managed to create three different timelines. After the first movie, you can pick which is real and which doesn’t count:

1. The two awful Canadian made-for-TV films (which did not have JCVD)
2. The Return, which ignored the previous sequels to continue straight from the first movie (and did boast JCVD)
3. Regeneration and Day of Reckoning, which also ignored ALL previous sequels to continue from the first film (also with JCVD)

Unlike the distinctly ’90s cheeseball tones of the previous four movies, director John Hyams (son of Peter Hyams of Timecop fame, who does the cinematography here) takes this series down a grittier and bleaker path.

Once more, this series borrows from the Die Hard playbook as a group of terrorists kidnap the (Ukranian) president’s kids and takes over Chernobyl. But the joke’s on them, because they’re going to get testicular cancer in the next 20 years! They’ve also got an advanced UniSol (UFC’s Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski) who makes a frontal assault all but impossible.

Time to call up a nostalgic reinforcements! Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is reverse-brainwashed to do the one-man-army thing along with a cloned Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren!). But it’s no surprise that this version of Scott is off his rocker and might be more of a threat than the terrorists. Oh, and of course Scott and Deveraux still have a beef with each other, so that’s back for another round.

Regeneration is what we call a “hard R” movie that might be shocking to anyone coming up through the entire series as I have. There’s blood and stabbing and body parts coming off that really shouldn’t. This film makes good on the disturbing implications of using former corpses as unstoppable killing machines — and not in a slow, plodding, RoboCop way. There are no shaky cams here so that you can witness every absolutely brutal punch and bullet.

Even Luc isn’t quite the hero we remember from either former iteration. He’s psychologically damaged and a bit of a loose cannon — but that’s what death does to you, I guess. He comes through in a clutch, though, and Van Damme proves that even after his days headlining A-list movies, he’s still got that action moxie. Maybe even a little more raw than before, as if he wants to prove himself?

And I’m never upset to see Dolph Lundgren show up for a fight, either. The combination of the two of them makes this far more of a legitimate sequel than anything else they could’ve done.

Regeneration’s not a perfect movie by any means, but it’s far, far better than a franchise in its fifth film and its third timeline deserved. All we wanted to see was super-powered God-mode zombies duking it out, and by gum, we get that here. It’s a darker tone — and it’s only going to get murkier form here — but I found it a good change of pace from the messy past that nobody was that in love with.

Intermission!

• Getting shot while backing up is embarrassing
• The bone sticking out, ouch. But hey, you can just cut off the old arm and put on a new one.
• The military footage of the Universal Soldier project is really effective to get viewers caught up
• Screwing the eyepieces to their heads is hardcore!
• “Send in the freaks, that’s an order Burke!”
• Wrist-blades are wicked cool
• JCVD’s stunt double does a lot of extra work here
• “You often contemplate the complexity of life?”
• Haven’t seen heroes use Uzis since the ’80s
• Rather jump out a window than face down a UniSol
• So much punching and slashing in this film
• Everyone be going through walls in this movie. I think they found an abandoned building and got full permission to wreck it.
• Never give the bad guy time to monologue. Luc gets it.
• Why are the police unloading automatic weapons at a vehicle with two hostages in it?
• Wow, look at the hair dye on Van Damme.
• Luc just beat the hell out this guy and they are just going to run away?
• Okay, I guess we are leaning into the clone thing now.
• Luc is returning to wild where he belongs like in Harry and the Hendersons.
• Buns Count: 0