I’d read good word on this Direct To Video sequel, Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009; also not to be confused with the previous DTV sequel Universal Soldier: The Return) and was curious to see if it matched the hype expressed about it among action fans. Even though it has the trappings of a DTV franchise action movie – shot in Eastern Europe, everyone looks very Russian or an MMA fighter, and the headlining stars are used sparingly (though effectively) which might suggest limited days with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren – it is clear from the opening action sequence that director John Hyams has a controlled sense of style and investment in practical effects and atmospheric locations. With his father Peter Hyams as cinematographer (he also helmed the JCVD hits Timecop and Sudden Death), there is a stripped back, cold, and impactful style. When the teenage children of the Russian president are held hostage by dissidents barricading themselves in the ruins of Chernobyl, and with an advanced UniSol (Andrei Arlovski) on their side programmed to dispatch any rescue team, Luc Devereaux (Van Damme) is brought back out of retirement. The power plant setting is impressive and the fight choreography is bone-crunchingly effective, and the camerawork moves smoothly with the action (without getting into shaky cam Paul Greengrass territory). It also feels like a completely different type of film to the original Roland Emmerich movie – Van Damme is appealingly grim, weary and jaded (reminding me a little bit of Denis Lavant in Beau Travail), and Lundgren doesn’t simply eat the scenery as the villain but lays on a bit of existential confusion in his performance. It’s also a tight film with a 90 minute running time, building up tension until it lets Van Damme loose in the last half hour, each sequence shifting in fighting style while building on the previous. I don’t know if it will have cross over impact if you’re not already down with seeing Van Damme or Lundgren get into it. This is still a film where padded up muscleheads do flying dropkicks at each other or bash each other through flimsy walls. But it also feels akin to the later half of Full Metal Jacket crossed with a stripped down Terminator vibe or the aesthetic of the video game Metal Gear Solid. Pumping synth score by Kris Hill and Michael Krassner. Without overhyping it, Regeneration does stand as a diamond in the rough of both action stars’ continual DTV output. Recommended. Looking forward to the follow up (also directed by John Hyams), Day Of Reckoning with Scott Adkins.
VHS Tracking 