Universal Soldier

Directed by Roland Emmerich, Universal Soldier follows Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Luc Deveraux as he’s murdered by an unhinged superior officer (Dolph Lundgren’s Andrew Scott) and, decades later, resurrected as part of a top-secret military experiment – with problems ensuing after both Luc and Andrew begin remembering their last few hours of life. It’s an irresistibly broad setup that’s employed to expectedly (and appropriately) larger-than-life effect by Emmerich, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin, delivers a briskly-paced actioner that benefits from its slick, cinematic visuals and raft of appealing performances – with, in terms of the latter, Van Damme’s engaging work here going a long way towards smoothing over the narrative’s sporadic bumps and lulls. There’s little doubt, as well, that Emmerich does a nice job of punctuating the proceedings with exciting set-pieces and violent encounters, including a final battle between Luc and Andrew that’s as visceral and brutal as one might’ve hoped, and although the picture probably should’ve topped out at 90 minutes, Universal Soldier nevertheless (and for the most part) comes off as a better-than-average high-concept blockbuster that holds up remarkably well all these years later.

*** out of ****