Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Universal Soldier, starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren is an awesome Sci-Fi action movie that not only had a good story, good effects and great action, but also had the added bonus of having two action stars duking it out for its finale. The film was the first relatively large success for the Dean Devlin and Rolan Emmerich team, who later went on to create blockbusters like Stargate and Independance Day, before murdering Godzilla. Naturally, sequels were made,for some reason they waited until 1998, but like most Van Damme movie sequels, the Belgian himself did not star, and the straight to video Universal Soldier 2 and 3 saw Matt Battaglia (whom I last seen in a supporting role in the Lundgren movie Army of One) as Luc Devereaux in his further adventures. While I havent seen either of these movies, they look dire, so I doubt I am missing much. But then in 1999, the Belgian decided to break his 'no sequels' hoodoo and get to work on Universal Soldier:The Return. As far as I am aware, this movie ignores 2+3 and is more of a direct sequel to the original.

The story once again follows Luc (Van Damme), who is now an advisor on a new, more advanced UNISOL project. He is also now human again, thanks to a little help from his colleague and friend Dr.Cotner (Xander Berkeley - Terminator 2) and has a daughter, Hillary (Karis Paige Bryant - TV's Charmed), but his wife is dead. Anyway, along with Dr.Cotner and their partner Maggie (Kiana Tom - Cyber Bandits), they have created a super-computer codenamed S.E.T.H which controls all of the UNISOLS and most of what goes on in the lab. There are now far more UNISOLS, with the most notable being the subject dubbed 'Romeo' (Bill Goldberg - The Jesse Ventura Story) who seems to have a disliking for Luc.
When a Military officer from the Pentagon arrives to inform them that the project is being shut down, S.E.T.H overhears and decides to go to war against humanity, setting all the UNISOLS on everyone in the lab. In the ensuing chaos, Hillary is injured and Maggie takes her to hospital while Luc and company try to shut down SETH, but in an unlucky twist, a news team are here to do a story on the project, and all but Luc and the presenter, Erin (Heidi Schanz - Kiss the Girls) are killed, and the two must escape the pursuing Romeo. But the UNISOLS are breaking out of the base, and the army are having trouble keeping them pinned back. They decide to take out the power around the base, forcing Luc to go further afar to try and hack into the system and find out what is going on. It turns out that SETH is being helped by a disgruntled former employee of the project called Squid (Brent Hinkley - Ed Wood), who has prepared a nigh perfect body for SETH to transfer his brain into. This body (Michael Jai White - Exit Wounds) has been enhanced by nanotechnology to be the ultimate biological lifeform, and with SETH's brain it is the ultimate threat for mankind.After SETH kills Squid, his purpose being fulfilled, he threatens Luc that unless he gives him the code that will stop automatic shutdown of his systems, he will kill Hillary, at which point he shows him footage of the UNISOLS taking the hospital and Romeo killing Maggie. Luc gets to the hospital just in time to meet SETH in his 'human', or as he puts it 'Super UNISOL' form before he kidnaps Hillary and makes his escape. Luc realises he is heading back for the base, and sneaks in, sending Erin to distract the General about to blow the base up. He reveals that the entire base is getting leveled in 15 minutes, Luc or no Luc. Inside, Luc will have to face his greatest challenge to not only defeat SETH,Save his daughter, and face up to Maggie, whom they have now converted into a UNISOL and escape in the 15 minutes left...

The acting in the movie is pretty mixed overall. Van Damme does his Van Damme thing, and Jai White is pretty menacing and convincing as the villain. But it has to be said that judging the actors in this movie is incredibly tough, seeing as some of the script is so cack that no one could make it good. I was getting ready to rip into the actress who played Luc's daughter, until I realised that the problem was less her performance, but the lines she was actually saying. "Daddy, I wish Mummy wasnt dead". I mean, while that is a valid thing to be feeling, I don't really see that as being something you would just come out with at a random point, with no inspiration. (Although it isnt ever made clear when her mother dies, if it were the week prior to the story, maybe but even then the line is so generic and lifeless I wouldn't forgive the movie).
Also, WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg was gonna come in for some stick for giving his UNISOL too much personality, until I realised he had actually been written that way. What the hell? (I'll get back to this later)
The only actor that should be singled out for being incredibly bad, in terms of acting, not just his character, would be the guy who played Squid, who was just over the top and incredibly annoying.
The two leading ladies Schanz and Tom are both very sexy, Tom especially, and her short screentime is a tragedy.

Musically, the movie is more funny than anything else. For some god unknown reason, maybe to try and appear trendy, the makers have decided to back up every action scene with some Rock/metal or Nu Metal music. While the guitar parts go quite well, when the lyrics kick in over the actual movie, I couldn't help but laugh. Two of the band's featured are Megadeth and GWAR. There is no way anyone could take that seriously as a soundtrack. One Minute Silence, D Generation and Static-X also contribute to the soundtrack. While listening to some of this music on its own isn't something I am ripping into (hell I've got a Megadeth CD), having it play while Van Damme is having a shootout with some ridiculously dressed UNISOL's just adds up to comedy.

The special effects are actually pretty good if nothing groundbreaking. While SETH's demise isn't all that great looking, the scene where Romeo is healed is good, and the explosions and such are all of a high enough calibre. The sets in the lab and such are pretty good as well.

The fight scenes in the movie, what little of them there are, are actually fairly well done and entertaining. Unlike his opposition in most of his recent movies, Michael Jai White is a worthy villain for an action picture, and while you feel his duel with Van Damme could have been better, as it is it makes for some good viewing for action fans. The various shoot-outs that occur are also decent enough to warrant an action fan's attention.

So where are the movie's faults. All over the shop. Now, while it is one thing not to be able to get Ally Walker to reprise her role from the first movie (because she is such a superstar now a movie like this would be so below her, apparently), making her replacement love interest nigh on identicle in terms of character is both stupid, and insulting to fans of the first movie. Now I think about it, that statement applies to quite a lot of things in the film. They 'reversed the process' on Luc. What. Before making him a UNISOL, he was a corpse. Surely un-UNISOLing him would make him a bit dead? lets not even get into the fact that his man-bits still work, and still produce potent enough sperm to give birth to a kid. And what the hell is with his character. In the original movie, part of the appeal was that he was now a man out of his time, he died in Vietnam. He was having to adjust with not only getting his memory and personality back, but also the changes in the world. Here he is a computer wiz and hit with the ladies. NO.
On a similar subject, why does Romeo have a personality? in US, the only reason Luc and his nemesis gained personality was due to events that triggered their memories, and even then their full personalities didnt come flooding back, why they would make a UNISOL with personality and let it live, especially after it expresses interest in raping Maggie, is beyond me.
And on the Maggie subject, when she saves Luc at the end of the movie, she says it is too late for her, she is a UNISOL. WHAT THE HELL,LUC IS LIVING PROOF THAT YOU CAN BE MADE HUMAN AGAIN.

So many story faults like these, and there are more, ensure the movie doesnt get a positive rating in my eyes, the fact that the basic plot premise is scarily like a rip-off of the original movie named T-Force piles on the annoyances for me.

You have to wonder what made Van Damme decide to break his sequels ban by appearing in this. I once read an interview with him where he says he turned down scripts for Bloodsport 2: The Next Kumite and Kickboxer 2: The Road Back. While the scripts offered would obviously differ from the movies made, the fact that both of those movies were entertaining, despite losing their main character makes me think the scripts had to be decent when he seen them, hell they had to be better than this.
The UNISOLS even look stupid in this movie. In the first film, they wore camo-fatigues with little head-sets that cover one eye with a sensor/camera. In this they wear black lycra jumpsuits and goofy yellow sunglasses.

This movie just seems so, so, pointless. While the first movie wasnt the deepest movie in terms of meaningful plot, the whole thing about re-animating the dead to be soldiers was well done and well handled. Why would the government greenlight the starting of a new UNISOL project?. Why would it put so much dangerous weaponry in the hands of a-test stage hyper-intelligent computer?

The thing that makes this all the more painful, is that a Universal Soldier sequel had some potential. It could have followed Luc, possibly being helped by the government, as some sort of special soldier, on a different type of adventure. But instead it makes the hero human, nothing like his prequel counterpart and up against a plot that is a rehash of the prequel's rip-off.

So is there anything to recommend it? well,um. Apart from the sexy ladies and the Van Damme/Jai White fight there really isnt much that stands out. While the other action scenes in the movie are all competent, the story and script completely void these. The funny thing is, and I feel kind of bad for admitting this, but the reason this movie didnt get three stars, was because it was a sequel. Had they made this a totally independant story, I might have been able to forgive it enough to score it average, but the fact that they tarnished the name and the characters of a great movie just makes me unforgiving.

Contrary to what people say, it isnt the worst movie ever. Hell, it isnt even the worst Van Damme movie. But I have no idea who to recommend it to. The rubbish story and script make it an action fans only affair, but most action fans will have seen, and probably enjoyed the original movie, so will probably be shocked to discover what it has become. This leaves the movie in cinema limbo.

At the end of the day, I am fully aware that I have watched much worse movies than this, and probably will watch more, but I'm still not going to be nice to this movie, the first one is one of the few Van Damme (and Lundgren for that matter) movies that is actually deemed respectable by some more up-themselves cinema critics. And this just undid any good for Van Damme's (and Lundgren through series association) name and hopes of getting his movies back to the big screen.
Im not going to go over the top, and give it minimum stars, because I am aware it was competantly made, and had a decent cast,action scenes and special effects, its just the story, and the fact it drags a favourite movie of mine's name through the mud that kill it.

So Jean Claude, next time someone offers you a sequel, actually read the script. Your fans would like to see sequels, but if they are going to be of the quality of this, then dont make them.

Other Jean Claude Van Damme Reviews

A.W.O.L: Absent without Leave
Bloodsport
Cyborg
Death Warrant
Derailed
Desert Heat
Double Team
Hard Target
Kickboxer
Knock Off
Legionnaire
Maximum Risk
No Retreat, No Surrender
Nowhere to Run
The Quest
Replicant
Sudden Death
Universal Soldier

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD