Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)

I still remember seeing the original Universal Soldier in 1992. It starred Jean Claude van Damme as Luc Deveraux, who became Universal Soldier GR44 and Dolph Lundgren as Andrew Scott/GR13 who was the bad guy. It liked the movie so much that I remember seeing it twice in the cinema. I loved the cheesy oneliners and the action. After this several sequels were made in the nineties: Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms, Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business, Universal Soldier: The Return. I skipped all of them knowing they wouldn’t be any good. It wouldn’t be the last in the series though as 2009 brought Universal Soldier: Regeneration, with both van Damme and Lundgren returning. I wasn’t expecting much from it, but thought it was quite entertaining and gave it a 7. So when I saw there was another one I was looking forward to checking it out as well as both the actors also were part of this one.

Unfortunately Lundgren and van Damme don’t have big roles and both are the bad guys here as the opening makes very clear. The star of the movie is John (Scott Adkins), who is shocked when is home is invaded by criminals, lead by van Damme’s character and witnesses him killing both his wife and kid in front of him. The way it is depicted isn’t as it would normally be shown in an action movie, here it is gruesome and bloody and made me feel like I was watching a horror movie. That feeling never left me as John tries to hunt down the reponsible people, the movie is filled with horrific scenes and I thought it was all too graphic for me to enjoy. Sure it might be weird to say that, but I did feel that a line was crossed and I had trouble stomaching it. The story didn’t make much sense and I kept hoping it would get better, which it unfortunately didn’t.

Are there any positive things to say about the movie? Well, it has some well choreographed fight scenes in it, but there isn’t much else I can think of. The fight of John against van Damme was too short and not as memorable as a previously fightscene in a sports shop. If you feel like watching a Universal Soldier movie, skip this one and see the original or Regeneration, they are much more enjoyable.