It is a performances centric movie

i must have seen a different film!!

A Masterpiece!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Do you know that synonymous, if you only know a movie title because you know exactly that has 10,000 copies in the DVD store? (with 50 direct-to-video sequels or prequels) That's just the case with "Universal Soldier", I just wanted to know how and where it all started. I also like to see martial artist trying on more serious film projects. But then I remembered "Roland Emmerich" and I knew what I had to get involved again.Surprisingly, that was not the case. That is clearly one of Emmerich's best films but that does not mean much.The story is pretty good in itself and I like the idea. In general, I'm always interested in any kind of weird science fiction but if you have not seen the first 5 to 10 minutes of the movie, then you might think it's just a normal soldier movie in which only a soldier went crazy.But in itself I have to say the movie is fun because it does not seem so long, has some pretty good ideas and Jean-Claude Van Damme is pretty entertaining and funny in so many scenes. That I really have to ask the question if this man would be a good comedian. My personal favorite is when he sits in yours and just no matter what happens all the food continues to eat and continue to eat. Dolph Lundgren is always better as a rogue (or as an anti-hero)Nevertheless, we must not forget that this is a criticism and we must also remain critical the film has the typical Roland Emmerich problems. The pacing in this movie is rather slow. Now the action is filmed faster + good enough but the scene went by quickly before / after getting into a car. Otherwise you can wait a long time until something interesting / important happens again. The battles are mediocre just like the love interest. (which one would not have needed in this movie but she has at least a narrative reason to follow him in the movie and it is at least understandable why they fall in love with each other)But the saddest thing is that the movie had 3 perfect scenes to end the movie and all the problems mentioned at the beginning would have been quickly forgotten, NO! Terrifyingly, the movie continues over 20 minutes because Roland Emmerich tried to make a double climaxx, but he did not understand how to build one that makes him worse and harder to deal with in retrospect. And that costs the film another star.

We would all like to see a movie with the youthful Jean Claude Van Damme work, but the problem is that "Universal Soldier" is not a good film. The whole premise of the film is not new: the "Universal Soldier" is really a pale imitation of the Terminator from the 1980s and 1990s. Of course, an unoriginal premise would not be a problem if they did something fresh with the material. After all, Terminator Part II was a very good movie. Yet "Universal Soldier" really consists of a number of car chase scenes on desert high ways and Dolph Lundgren's heavy-duty jerk firing his big guns at Jean Claude Van Damme and his female companion, Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker). Is someone trying to overcompensate here with the big guns? You be the judge. There is very little suspense generated in these chases, partly because they are not well filmed and partly because the good guys never really seemed to be in any danger. Finally, there is the big fight at the end and I don't need to tell you who wins that one. The only element in the film that worked was Ally Walker who had some humorous and witty lines during her panic attacks, which made me smile. Unfortunately, Jean Claude Van Damme has even fewer lines than Ally Walker and is incredibly restrained and robotic throughout this picture. I realize that Van Damme has to be robotic as a universal soldier (that's the whole premise anyway), but they could have done something original with the material by showing how inept Van Damme is at understanding human emotions and behaviour. For instance, there is a hilarious scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger's terminator gets schooled by John Connor on why he cannot kill people (a robot programmed to kill people would not necessity make that leap in logic without some help). But Van Damme sadly is only there as a piece of furniture and for some pretty drab action scenes. As a result, Ally Walker almost by default nearly steals the show. One wonders in retrospect if Universal Soldier would have been a better film if it was about Ally Walker discovering the universal soldier program through investigative journalism than about the universal soldiers themselves.

Private Luc Deveraux (Jean Claude-Van Damme) and Sergeant Scott (Dolph Lundgren) are killed during the war in Vietnam. Several years later, they are brought back to life as obedient cyborgs by a covert and off- the-book government programme. However, when both of the former soldiers start to reform their old memories, all hell starts to break loose...In some ways, science fiction films are often the most difficult to review as they are often created in an alternate reality where the writers can make things up (meaning that what may seem like big plot holes in the real world may not be plot holes in the writer's world). However, I do feel that even science-fiction films should have some kind of internal logic and this is where Universal Soldier runs into problems...OK; so a covert team have somehow managed to turn dead flesh into living tissue which enables them to create a team of obedient cyborg soldiers - I presume that lobotomies were carried out on the soldiers to suppress their memories, but this is purely supposition as this is never clarified. Devereaux's memory cap is popped by getting a sense of Deja Vu, or a flashback to his days in Nam (which I suppose is plausible at a stretch). However, Scott's 'Total Recall' comes out of nowhere and essentially occurs when he smashes through a car windscreen. Perhaps a head trauma triggered it, but this is never explained in the film and seems rather ridiculous when scrutinised.The wider story (involving the recruitment of reimagined cyborgs stepping in to assist in crime fighting) is a good idea, but it's given so little thought or consideration in this picture that it actually becomes rather laughable. Once Devereaux's memory cap is popped he goes on the run with news reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) and the pair find themselves being chased by Scott and the remaining cyborgs. However, what doesn't make sense to me is that a bunch of cyborgs which are controlled by some kind of covert sub-division government would seemingly intentionally draw so much attention to themselves? Literally thousands of rounds are fired and literally everyone that the cyborgs encounter either gets killed or they end up kissing the pavement, but yet there are never any police, FBI or government officials who seem to get involved or investigate any of these occurrences. Even the way that this covert operation (in respect of the cyborgs) is handled feels rather laughable - they have an eye camera and an ear piece that can easily be dislodged which results in the cyborgs being of no use to them. Couldn't they have created something more sophisticated?Still if you overlook all the holes in the story (and admittedly it is hard to do) and overlook the rather bad acting (again difficult, but not impossible) then as an action film it is perfectly serviceable. Many of the fight sequences between Lundgren and Van-Damme are quite well-staged and Van Damme's fight in the diner is a good tongue-in-cheek action fest as well. It's fair to say that no-one was ever going to be Oscar-nominated in this film, but I have to say that Lundgren (despite how bad he was), did at least try to make this film fun - even with his rather atrocious 'I'm all ears' one-liner.With its ludicrous plotting and lack of any sort of logic Universal Soldier remains a serviceable and very basic action flick, but doesn't have the involving narrative of the many films it borrows from meaning that it is OK as a one time watch, but offers little more than that.

Universal Soldier is one of those violent action movies that is much maligned amongst a lot of critics but still popular amongst audiences. Released in 1992, Universal Soldier was a box office success however critics dismissed it as a mindless and derivative action film with over the top violence. I first saw Universal Soldier when it first premiered on TV as a 10 year old back in 1994 and I have always considered this movie to be a fun an entertaining movie. Not only that, you cannot deny that Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as the star leads boosted its eye candy appeal.Universal Soldier starts off in Vietnam in 1969 where Private Luc Deveraux (Jean Claude Van Damme) has discovered a village in which US soldiers and Vietnamese villagers have been brutally murdered with their ears severed off. The person responsible for the massacre is the platoon Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren in a cracking performance as the villain) who has kept the severed ears as a necklace and is also holding a young Vietnamese couple hostage. Luc Deveraux tries to reason with the deranged Andrew Scott however the couple end up being killed and both Deveraux and Scott shoot each other to death. Deveraux and Scott's corpses are recovered by a second U.S. Special Forces squad and cryogenically frozen, their deaths covered up as "missing in action". Deveraux and Scott are revived without memories of their previous lives and are selected for the "Universal Soldier" program, an elite counter terrorism unit. Also known as UniSols, they are genetically augmented soldiers with enhanced healing abilities and superior strength, but also have a tendency to overheat and shut down. They are given a neural serum to keep their minds susceptible and their previous memories suppressed. Fast forward to 1992 and the UniSols are deployed to resolve a hostage situation in which a number of armed hostiles are taken a number of hostages at Hoover Dam and have killed a number of hostages and police officers. Deveraux's callsign is GR13 and Scott has been assigned GR44. The situation is resolved however there is some flaws that start to surface, when Deveraux becomes unresponsive after having a flashback and Scott is seen using excessive force. One of the technicians, Woodward (Leon Rippy), wants to remove Devereaux for further analysis, but UniSol commander Colonel Perry (Ed O'Ross) refuses and insists there is no problem. After being fired, television news journalist Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) attempts to get her job back by trespassing onto the military base to further investigate the UniSol project along with her cameraman. After they are detained by Deveraux and Scott, Scott executes the cameraman in cold blood and Deveraux escapes with Veronica. Deveraux along with Veronica must uncover his past life and how he was resurrected, and how the Universal Soldier project came to light in the 1960's by Dr. Christopher Gregor (Jerry Orbach). Unbeknownst to Colonel Perry and everyone else, Scott slowly regains his psychotic behaviour and spearheads the mission to kill Deveraux and Veronica.A lot of people saw Universal Soldier as a rip off of the Terminator movies and the plot as unoriginal. I didn't see it that way nor was it a concern for me. I liked all of it. In particular, the butt kicking old school action was enjoyable and Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were fantastic as the main leads. Van Damme was still at his height of his popularity and his 360 kicks are still on display. Dolph's physical prowess was also at his best and he has still maintained his physical abilities many years later.Director Roland Emmerich who later became well known for blockbusters such as Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004) does a quality job in one of his early movies that helped gain him recognition.I didn't care for any of the sequels, they were just pure rubbish. Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) was one of the worst movies that I had the misfortune to see and I refuse to see the rest of the direct to DVD sequels that have since followed.Universal Soldier is pure action packed eye candy and you certainly can't go wrong with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as the main attraction. Although it may be a bit dated now, many years later I still have a soft spot for Universal Soldier. Ignore the critics and ignore the plot, just sit back and enjoy the action packed fun.8/10.