Universal Soldier: Regeneration

Directed by John Hyams, Universal Soldier: Regeneration follows Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Luc Deveraux as he’s tasked with preventing a madman, who’s kidnapped the Russian President’s children, from blowing up a nuclear reactor. It’s clear immediately that Universal Soldier: Regeneration suffers from an exceedingly, distractingly low-rent feel that’s reflected in its myriad of attributes, including its shot-on-the-cheap visuals and Eastern Europe setting, and the movie is, as a result, utterly (and hopelessly) unable to capture the viewer’s interest or attention, even fleetingly, for the duration of its sporadically interminable 97 minutes – with the arm’s length atmosphere compounded by its assortment of bland, one-dimensional characters. (Even Van Damme isn’t able to breathe any life into this mostly interminable mess, and it’s clear, too, that his character hardly seems like the same person from the vastly-superior original film.) The sole saving grace within an otherwise endless slog is a continuing emphasis on appreciatively brutal fight sequences, as Hyams infuses such moments with a bone-crunching brutality that’s admittedly difficult to resist (and the climactic fight between Luc and a cloned Andrew Scott, played by Dolph Lundgren, is as satisfying as one might’ve hoped). It’s nevertheless, in the end, impossible to label Universal Soldier: Regeneration as anything less than a palpable misfire and a massive disappointment, which is a shame, obviously, given the potential inherent in Van Damme and Lundgren’s return to territory that was previously employed to stirring, compelling effect.

*1/2 out of ****