The_Phantom_Projectionist
Three years ago, director John Hyams' UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION breathed new life into a thought-dead franchise and thereby made one of the best action pictures of the year. To say that I was interested in seeing this follow-up is an understatement: with a good deal of the previous one's cast and crew returning, along with the new additions of martial arts' "it" guy Scott Adkins and cult fight choreographer Larnell Stovall, this one looked like a surefire topper to its immediate prequel and another great action outing. Did the movie live up to my high expectations? ...well, at least partially. This is, without question, a great action outing with some of the better fight scenes put out this year. However, the same way that REGENERATION was a huge departure from the style of its bouncier predecessors, so too is DAY OF RECKONING a departure from the standard action genre as we know it, with a storyline so far removed from what I was expecting that it took a bit of time for me to contemplate whether it counted for or against the movie. Overall, this one's definitely worth checking out and even buying, but depending on your expectations, it counts as the end of the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER franchise.The story: a husband and father (Adkins, UNDISPUTED 3) is beaten half to death and sees his family murdered before him by Luc Devereaux, the maverick Unisol (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Recovering from his injuries and plagued by inexplicable hallucinations, he sets out to untangle the mystery behind the killing and exact vengeance on Devereaux.For those of you who watched the last film, you'll glean from summary that things do not neatly pick up from where the story left off. Looking at the cast list and film poster, you'll no doubt also wonder what the heck Dolph Lundgren and Andrei Arlovski are doing in this picture, since they'd recently been killed off. And as a matter of fact, why is Luc now killing people? Questions like these, along with several others presented by the film's narrative, have flustered enough viewers for them to declare this a "semi sequel" that's not necessarily part of the same story arc. Me, I think it is a proper sequel, and that we're to assume that a good deal of time has passed since the previous flick and this one. Luc Devereaux has become an enigmatic figure to both allies and enemies with a rather grandiose master plan. The character played by Andrei Arlovski is not the same as his last one. And as for Dolph Lundgren...well, he was cloned once before, wasn't he? I've been able to placate myself with these answers, but people who don't want this kind of ambiguity are probably going to be disappointed.Personally, what jarred me more than any part of the plot was the style of the movie. With its numerous storyline twists, hallucination scenes, and insane amounts of bloodletting, this is very nearly a horror film. Having the characters rediscover parts of their personal history has always been a component of the series, but in DAY OF RECKONING, it's an uninhibitedly dark process, complete with psycho-thriller imagery. I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about it, since this - more than any of the character-related aspects - makes the film feel wholly different from its predecessors. With that said, it does inspire some decent intensity out of the performers. Despite his third-name billing, Scott is clearly the lead in this movie and carries things well, giving a strong performance and again demonstrating why he is the new top action hero in all respects even if Hollywood hasn't caught on yet. Van Damme has surprisingly few scenes in the movie, but those he does partake in are good: he doesn't even need to speak anymore to get his points across, as demonstrated in any scene he shares with his Unisol subordinates (he has those, by the way). Dolph Lundgren has even less screen time than Van Damme, but does okay with another crazy monologue. Andrei Arlovski doesn't have much to act, and love interest Mariah Bonner isn't very memorable.Production-wise, the movie is strong. Action-wise, the film is a powerhouse of extremely brutal hand-to-hand action. Is it as good as I had been expecting? ...it might be better to point that it wasn't *what* I was expecting. After their first collaboration in the aforementioned UNDISPUTED 3 set the bar for all future martial arts flicks, I had been expecting that Adkins and Larnell Stovall would present us with more lightning-speed martial arts wizardry, but what they delivered instead are brawls. Violent, gritty, gory brawls. I think this had to do with the physical constraints of many of the performers, and in a way, it's disappointing...but then again, the fights tend to be better than good and easy to appreciate for both the physicality of the performers and the gamely shooting and editing style of the filmmakers. My personal favorite brawl is the second showdown between Adkins and Arlovski, wherein they beat the hell out of each other with baseball bats. While not the barn-burner I had been hoping it to be, Adkins vs. Van Damme during the finale is definitely the best fight the two have had - beating the snot out of their outings in THE SHEPHERD: BORDER PATROL and ASSASSINATION GAMES.Whether or not you appreciate the movie, I think, depends on both how much you enjoyed the last film and how far you think the action genre can be bent until the filmmakers have to make a choice whether they want to make an action film or a horror flick. The strength of this one's action scenes determined that it could be bent pretty far this time, but overall, I could have done without the change in direction. While there's nothing in the film that I don't explicitly dislike, the things I'm uncertain about keep this one from a higher score.
vampiri
I have followed this installment from the beginning with great enthusiasm, but this fourth film in the series was a huge let down, this one is by far the weakest link.Plot: Deveraux is working to dismantle the government and he is using the UNISOL-program to his advantage. However, the government is continuously updating the UNISOL-program and their tactics, and so Deveraux is finding their latest trick quite hard to combat.I might call myself a traditionalist when it comes to character and plot development. Although you may fill in the blanks on your own, the fourth film should have been about Deveraux and how he got to where he is in this Movie from the third Movie.I wrote above that this Movie is the weakest link, why? Well, a solid link with the other Three Movies is all but missing. Movies 1 to 3 has a clear, linear and natural Connection to each other, this fourth one is almost only connected by name and a few random threads.What is missing too is the explaining of the development of the UNISOL-program. And why this stubbornness of using characters from previous Movies (well, besides Selling more tickets that is)? The fighting scenes are terrific although they are completely in the wrong order. Shouldn't the best one be saved for last? Final Words then, a fifth Movie is in order to wrap up the loose ends.Although a big let down, I still give it 5 out of 10 because I like the theme of super humans.
TdSmth5
A guy named John (Scoot Adkins) sees three guys invade his home. They grab his wife and daughter and kill them right in front of him and beat him up. He ends up in a hospital in a coma. When he wakes up he keeps having flashbacks of the killings. The killer is Van Damme. A FBI agent visits him and offers to help find the killer.When John leaves the hospital with no recollection of the past, he listens to a phone recording at home. A friend of him was in trouble and called him. John goes to the apartment and finds his friend dead and beaten to a pulp. He finds matches from a strip joint. He goes to the strip joint where a stripper recognizes him but so do the bouncers who kick him out. He meets up with the girl who tells him about a bit about his past, that he beat up some guy at the docks. He goes to the docks and talks to the boss who tells him he has some type of container that was to be shipped.Meanwhile the FBI agent orders to activate "the plumber". And the plumber (Arlovski) stops plumbing and leaves. He goes to a whorehouse and kills everyone. Apparently he is after Lundgren who injects him with something and talks to him about being free. The next time we see Arlovski he is after John and the girl. But something ticks in John's brain and he defeats the plumber in a brutal fight. John too got injected at some point. We see Lundgren later in a cave giving a speech to a bunch of soldiers about freedom. They are part of some cult and the leader is Van Damme.Next, John and the girl go to a cottage somewhere in the swamps and meet up with someone who will tell him more of what is going on. Now John goes to the cave where a dr. grabs him and drills his brain, not before giving an explanation about what really happened to his family. But John escapes and finally he goes after the killer of his family.Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning has a convoluted story and it doesn't go well about explaining it. It's not a bad story but clearly they tried to keep the audience in the dark and reveal things little by little. Unfortunately it takes too long, and this is a long movie at almost two hours. Two hours that are mostly devoid of dialogue.I really enjoyed the previous entry in the Universal Soldier series and was looking forward to this one, but it turned out to be a letdown unfortunately. US-Day of Reckoning had tremendous potential- a fantastic cast, great locations in Louisiana, a somewhat interesting story that deviates a bit from what we are used to in the series. It has truly fantastic fight scenes, is brutal and gory- even in the censored version. However, what ought to be highlights- fights between Adkins and Lundgren and Adkins and Van Damme turned out to be disappointments as well. It is never clear who the bad guys are, given that everybody is talking about freedom and giving the soldiers free will. The movie is however pretty unique and different. It's trippy and well filmed. But the shortcomings are too evident to overlook- even though Adkins is great, this may not be the role for him and we're not given enough reason to like or care for John. And you're always waiting for Lundgren to show up and cause mayhem or for Van Damme to kick butt- and in both cases it just doesn't happen.I think we can let Day of Reckoning be the experimental entry in the franchise, most of them do have one that where they try to do something fresh and different; here though it didn't work all that well. I hope thought that the next movie will be a return to form.
Mike Garcia
I didn't know what to expect from the last UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, the first one of the franchise is a total classic, the second one was a big disappointment and the third one was a great surprise that gave a new vision to the franchise, in this new film Jean-Claude Van Damme is no longer the main actor, his character has new argumental twist becoming of some kind of colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse now, losing the little mankind he had left, I must say that his performance is what I most liked about the film. This time Scott Adkins is the star, a great martial artist who in my opinion lacks in charisma compared with the greatest stars of the genre,his final fight against JCVD is pretty awesome . Dolph Lundgren also has a brief appearance that really doesn't bring nothing to the story and MMA fighter Andrei Arlovski who played the villain in the previous one repeats his role in this one..This film is darker and most violent than the previous ones, disturbing and at moments confusing , I think is a good closure to the saga although that is not as brilliant as the original Universal Soldier and Universal soldier regeneration..
