Universal Soldier began in 1992 before suffering from some tawdry sequels.
Deveraux tries to stop him, and both of them are killed in the ensuing fight.
Deveraux then starts to remember his old life, and goes on the run.
The action is solid enough lots of early 90s explosions and stuff but nothing truly memorable.
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The strongest points are actually Van Damme and Lundgrens performances.
Van Damme deadpans surprising well, playing it as an ruthless but naive warrior.
The first Universal Soldier was a success, but not a massive hit or anything.
Thinking about it, it was about the highest profile work either of the leads ever did.
Despite none of the original cast returning,Brothers In Armscontinued directly from the first film.
Derveraux was now played by former NFL player Matt Battaglia.
Backing him up were acting titans Gary Busey and Burt Reynolds.
He is stoic, silent and unworldly.
InThe Returnhes a goofball single-parent.
Deveraux inThe Returnis Van Damme, talking normally and cracking jokes.
Hes barely even Van Damme the character is just a cypher and a cheesy smile.
The first one ends with Deveraux having escaped the programme and trying to put a life back together.
In this one hes just working for them again, all cheery.
The plot revolves around the UniSol program being shut down due to budget cuts.
It feels straight-to-video, and flopped both critically and commercially.
That scientists name was John Hyams.
Like making fun of how far their careers had fallen.
Like when Mickey Rourke returned to makeAnother 912 Weekswhen his career was on the skids.
But somehow Hyams created something wonderful.
Regeneration hits you from its startling opening scene.
The scene suddenly cuts as they exit the building, and their car is hit by an armoured SUV.
They turn to the final UniSol, Luc Deveraux, now back to being Jean-Claude Van Damme.
We dont see Van Damme until 15 minutes into the film.
After the other UniSols are killed, its revealed hes undergoing rehabilitation in Switzerland.
We then cut directly to a close-up of Van Dammes face, looking directly into the camera.
No background, no context.
Van Damme looks withered and haggard.
He no longer has the cheesy, annoying grin of The Return.
Instead, he now has an incredible, interesting face.
He looks like he has been through hell.
And in a lot of ways he has.
Watching the Universal Soldier films in order presents an interesting Van Damme biography.
By 1999, by all accounts, he was an insufferable brat.
The Luc Deveraux of The Return is intensely annoying, with a face you just want to punch.
Van Damme abandons everything that makes the character interesting just so he can mug to the camera.
But by 2009 hed been through hell and survived.
I was on the blacklist.
That was it, he continued in the same interview.
But he got off the coke, kept working and survived.
He was stuck in the DTV ghetto, but he started to make some more interesting films.
2007sUntil Deathwas his take onBad Lieutenant,in which he stretched his acting by playing a heroin-addicted cop.
A year later he starred as himself in the brutally-honestJCVD.
The Deveraux ofRegenerationcould easily be a stand in for the Van Damme of 2009.
Hyams filmmaking is miles ahead of anything youd normally expect in a straight-to-DVD action film.
The cinematography around the Chernobyl site is wonderful.
Of course, the action is expertly handled as well.
Hyams shoots everything with a steady clarity, making everything simple to follow yet still thrilling.
In particular he highlights the ground and pound style popular in UFC in the choreography.
It really makes the UniSols feel like inhuman machines, with no thought of style let along compassion.
Hyams follows him with a steady tracking shot, only cutting for close ups of his strikes impact.
One of the most interesting things aboutRegenerationis how it almost lacks a protagonist.
Hes mostly restricted to the containment unit on the military base, brooding silently.
Andrei Arlovski is actually first billed in the credits, but hes the almost silent bad guy.
I dont know if its intentional, but the UniSols are far more interesting than the regular humans.
(Or is it part three, if they ignoresThe Return?
But its also technically the sixth one.
The film has an even better opening thanRegeneration.
All shot from his POV, it starts with Adkins in bed with his wife.
His young daughter wakes him up, saying she heard a monster in the house.
Adkins swears to get revenge, and find out why his family were killed.
Which is totally not how the film plays out.
Hes discovered how to give the UniSols back their freedom, but retain their superhuman powers.
The plot is intentionally oblique.
But its all about creating a mood of paranoia.
The film owes more to Philip K Dick than Roland Emmerichs original.
If he is not who he believes he is, then is he really himself?
And most importantly, even if the events did not happen, are the emotions he felt still real?
The ending is particularly striking in this sense.
If the previousUniversal Soldierfilms were about dehumanisation,Day Of Reckoningis about re-humanisation.
Yet Adkins ultimately chooses to reject the enlightenment, picking the easier, or simpler, option.
Stylistically, the film is a complete departure from Regeneration.
It looks and sounds extraordinary.
Early in the film.
When Arlovski confronts him, he injects him with a serum that unlocks him from his programming.
Accompanied by screeching atonal audio, its hypnotic and genuinely painful to watch to at points.
The UniSol cults hidden base is just as visually startling.
The shaven-headed Van Damme hovers around in black and white voodoo-like face paint, more enigma than man.
Hyams had creditedApocalypse Nowas an influence and it definitely has aHeart Of Darknesslike craziness to it.
The film has a dream-like feeling of David Lynch films.
Its the feeling of Anywheresville USA that makes Blue Velvet so disturbing.
It would be wonderful to see him have a late period resurgence as an odd-looking character actor.
Again, the film works as the next chapter in this weird biography of JCVD.
He can now appear in beer adverts and viral videos doing the splits.
Everyone knows who Jean-Claude Van Damme is, even if they would never watch one of his films.
Its truly a one of a kind movie.
Plus David Lynch never shot an action sequence like the ones inDay Of Reckoning.
The piece de resistance, however, is Adkins and Arlovski going at it halfway through the film.
TheUniversal Soldierseries is an unusual one.
So he could almost make whatever he liked.
This is why its so depressing every time a film like the newCarrieorTotal Recalljust lethargically goes through the motions.
IfUniversal Soldiercan become something wonderful, virtually anything can.
