Universal Soldier: Regeneration - Page 2

He does show a tiny bit of humanity in that end Building scene. He's got that soldier defenseless by the window and instead of killing him just allows him to run away.

Yeah, I also interpreted that as him not seeing any point in killing the guy. He's on a mission that is very specific. He kills when he has to. He's not a murderer.

It wouldn't have taken much energy to waste that guy. Just a second at most.

I'd heard REGENERATION is selling well on Amazon. I hope this will be a hit for Hyams, Dolph and Van Damme. They deserve a congratulations for this one.

I hope it continues doing great as well. I've been pimping it non-stop to everyone I know.

Plus, it later shows him chasing his screaming, fleeing enemies down and beating them to death. Don't tell me that didn't take energy.

Hmmm, I suppose you're right. I guess it was just the limited amount of screen time that Lundgren had that bothered me. His arc was interesting and I was looking for a confrontation of sorts with his past. Sort of like a Bladerunner-esque moment where he calls into question who or what they are and what was done to them. But that might be getting to cerebral for a film like this. hahaha!

Don't want to be overly cynical, but I can't believe Lundgren really cared about the 'direction' of his character from a movie he made 18 years ago. I have a suspicion his involvement was 99% motivated by an increased pay cheque.

I'd have a mind to agree if he wasn't the sole cast member appearing on the dvd commentary. He gets pretty in depth about his career and a lot of the choices in this film.

That's also evidence that he actually cared about the film. That was a great bonus of having him on the audio commentary since we only get to see him for a few scenes in the film.

I get the sense that many of these beefcake actors from the 80s and 90s, as they get on in years, really do hope to be remembered for more than their biceps and action scenes. Stallone is fashioning himself a B Movie Eastwood, Van Damme is going all "character actor" and Dolph is trying to be a bit or a renaissance man.

I think everyone remembers that John Wayne eventually got an Oscar. (He was a better actor than people think. Much like Dolph.)

All in all, I think they do care about craft to the extent that it serves their product. I don't think anyone's kidding themselves, obviously. But it's clear that they strive, each time out, to deliver the very highest quality product that they can within its established parameters. Universal Soldier: Regeneration is certainly evidence of this and a cut above the rest. As I stated earlier, I put it right up there in quality with theatrical action fodder like Taken. I can tell you right now that, as far as franchise re-invigorations go, it's much better and more satisfying than Terminator Salvation despite being made for a fraction of that film's catering budget.

Forgot about the commentary. Maybe he did give shit then. To be fair, in the interviews for his other movies he sounds committed to giving it his all.

Just got the Blu-Ray from Netflix. Gonna have to remember to give the commentary a listen.

Well-directed, well-staged, well-choreographed. Dolph is great. JC, Pyle and Arlovsky are good.

It's just such a dour and joyless movie. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't a B-action fan to begin with, outside of the amazing action scenes.

All in all, not up to par with other '09 DTV offerings such as Blood & Bone and The Tournament. I definitely had a good time, but... esoteric seems a wrong word. You know what I mean, though.

I see what you're saying. But I think that's keeping it in that old-school vibe. Many of those 80s movies had a more dour tone to them. It's definitely darker than the first Universal Soldier and doesn't really make any time for that film's humor (except one great bit from Dolph). But I do think that was the intention - to make a darker, edgier picture.

I think you can heartily recommend it to any action fan. Some of today's action hits (like Bourne 2 & 3) have a decidedly downbeat tone to them. This fits pretty well in there, I think.

I don't think i've ever seen anything like the final blow. The fight scenes were abit repetitive but you could feel those blows and they were notably enhanced by the spit and blood spray from the impacts. Simple details like that make a big difference and add a real physicality to the scenes.

What I've found impressive about some of these DTV's is how they're able to bring scope to stories with just a handful of locations, often using one main building for the vast majority of the film. Just shoot from a different angle, change the lighting, maybe add a legend and bob's your uncle, you're somewhere else and it stays fresh.

It's interesting, to be sure. You can look at a movie like Taken, which had a fairly substantial budget, and it still seems almost like DTV. The you watch Universal Soldier Regeneration and they seem to be able to do so much more with such a limited budget. Kinda makes you want to give John Hyams a bigger budget just to see what he could do.

Fucking A what a movie! Meat and Potatoes is what this film should be called. Its a very tight film (despite the hiccups in acting) and I appreciated the tone. To me it is superior to Emmerich's flick because it says a whole lot more with a lot less. The action, direction, acting and music hit the right notes continually.

This will sound way hyperbolic but the way Hyams directs this gives me early vibes of James Cameron's work on The Terminator or even John Carpenter's on Assault on Precinct 13.

Its wonderful to see Dolph and Van Damme at it again but its a pleasure to know that new generations will be able to experience seeing these two icons going at it again.

Dolph is sublime in his limited screentime. Wow was I " oh shitting " the scene when Luc and Scott meet again with the two kids. Thats again great allusion filmmaking without being too flashy from Hyams. Van Damme sleepwalks through his stuff most of time but delivers a serviceable performance.

When I have the dough the bluray will be bought from Amazon.

Thanks Chud!

You got that 100% right.

Happy we could help. I wouldn't exactly call Van Damme's performance "Sleepwalking" though.

The nature of his character is that Luc is confused and weary. Not exactly much for him to work with.

If you can believe Wikipedia then Taken had a budget of $25 million while US:R had $14 million. So Taken had less than double the budget and I wouldn't be surprised if Liam Neeson's paycheck was more than VD's and Lundgren's combined. I do agree though that I would also like to see what John Hyams could do with more money. As soon as the Blu-Ray goes on sale than it will be mine.

So the new Universal Soldier is worth seeing, and we know about the original. What's the word on the ones in between, any worth seeing?

Yeah, you can pretty much forget about all the sequels now, thanks to Regeneration. It's like they never happened. And that's a very good thing.

Doesn't sound hyperbolic at all. And it is, in fact, what John Hyams was hoping you'd think.

I've always said that Cameron was riffing on Carpenter in the first Terminator. Right down to Brad Fiedel's tinker-tink electronic score.

So Hyams just keeps things in that spirit.

What did you think of the score? Wasn't it awesome?

Yes the score was really effective.

Thats one other thing that really worked beneath the surface in Regeneration compared to Emmerich's original the Frankenstein aspect. In Emmerich's there was too much noise and playfulness to truly feel the cold darkness of these dead super soldiers.

That being said in Regeneration that aspect feels totally organic especially in the opening scene with Dolph " Are you a punctual and reliable person? Do you often contemplate the complexity of life? ".

Love the Blade Runner homage with Dolph killing his creator by crushing his skull.

The whole Frankenstein undertones are played well with the atmospheric/ambient (yet horrorish in parts) music.

Love, love, love. I heard it was good but I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. This is one of the best DTV films I've ever seen.

As good as the action is I have to say that my favorite scene is when Luc and Andrew meet again. Dolph really did a great job there.

Another thing I really liked was how relatively short the fight scenes were. They weren't dragged out and it really did a lot in making Arlovski a major threat. Even the VD/Arlovski fight was more of a running battle.

That's one of the aspects I really love about Regeneration. There's no evolution for the Van Damme character. He's just a killing tool with a smidgen of humanity. I still wonder what Sgt. Scott's one thing he couldn't remember was?

Where he left his ear necklace?

Quite possibly.

That's one slamming fight they have. They need to pipe in Universal Soldier IV and bring back Dolph again.

Such a great flick. I've been saying loud to all I know about this movies greatness. My brother just got it from Red Box and loved it.

IF they make another one, Mike Pyle will be the focus and Van Damme is definitely out. This is wishful thinking on my part, but perhaps they can pull a T2 and make Dolph the good guy.

Although I fully support bringing back Dolph for US4, I think Andrew Scott is far more fascinating a character in villain mode. If they make him the "hero" it would have to be in morally ambiguous terms. Like a futuristic Bogart character.

Well as a clone he's not supposed to remember anything right? So the idea is that still there's something remaining, almost "subconscious" and in this one Dolph's character is clearly there to show the UNISOLS have a soul and are still human. And so right when VD is about to finishing it's like he's having a flash of their "relationship" and fight... This what Hyams explains in the commentary, so don't look for a specific line that they wrote and ommitted, there is none, or you can imagine him wanting to one of th first film...

http://thevandammefans.vandammefan.n...ad.php?t=10848
From John Hyams:

Any word on another installment and if Hyams is willing to direct another?

This was better than any DTV Universal Soldier sequel had any right to be. I'm kinda surprised Universal hasn't just rebooted this franchise over again - it's got potential. So long as they don't release a PG-13 version that neuters the concept.

Just watched this early this morning and I really liked it.

Van Damme was fucking cold blooded in his warehouse invasion scenes. His battle with Dolph was intense.

Arlovski and Pyle were both good. I liked the use of MMA style striking too. I thought it looked good.

I enjoyed Van Damme & Arlovski's running battle. Thought that was pretty neat.

So I just saw this because it was on the Netflix waiting list forever. I remember wondering why this flick was so popular. I gotta say I was kind of blown away by this film. I haven't seen real action in so long. I pretty much never see DTV movies but this one honestly impressed me. Also they were smart enough to know that Van Damme is a horrible actor and mostly used him for action sequences.

I had seen it before and liked it, but the second time through this movie was with two friends who were not digging it and the movie is one of those ones where it plays very badly if the vibe is wrong.

A week or so later I watched it with someone else who dug it and I liked it again.

I agree with everyone that the real fighting really makes the movie great. Hyams does great with limited schedules, but one of the things I was struck by the second time (less the third, but I still noticed) is how long it takes for Van Damme and Lundgren to really appear in the movie, and then how long after that it takes for them to really get into some action. The third act is basically pure greatness, though.

Such a relief to see fight scenes in a movie I can understand. Hate the quick-cut shit more and more and I don't get why directors keep doing it. They watch movies, don't they? They can all see that it's fucking retarded, can't they?

Only quibble: why, concretely, does the last nameless Unisol throw down his gun when he confronts Arlovski at the reactor? He's standing 15 feet away and yet the Unisol doesn't even try to shoot him. My two theories are either a) he's out of bullets or b) he knows the other Unisols shot Arlovski and it didn't work, but I am still skeptical. Will a headshot kill a Unisol?

Looking forward to US4 3D.

Oops, I'm an idiot.

As far as I know he's penning the script as we speak...

This film just kicks ass. It is to the point, and that point is kicking ass.

It keeps postmodern irony to a minimum and manages to reference Call of Duty 4 and Children of Men more than the original Universal Soldier, and I honestly can't say that is a bad thing at all.

I like both films for totally different reasons, but Regeneration is a class act. And honestly, I can't understand why it is being dismissed when it provided a much more visceral experience than most new action films I've seen. I would have killed for this movie as a 10 year old, but I'm still damn glad to have it now. No pretenses, just delivery.

This film just kicks ass. It is to the point, and that point is kicking ass.

It keeps postmodern irony to a minimum and manages to reference Call of Duty 4 and Children of Men more than the original Universal Soldier, and I honestly can't say that is a bad thing at all.

I like both films for totally different reasons, but Regeneration is a class act. And honestly, I can't understand why it is being dismissed when it provided a much more visceral experience than most new action films I've seen. I would have killed for this movie as a 10 year old, but I'm still damn glad to have it now. No pretenses, just delivery.

Watched it last night and really didn't dig it. It's well directed and the fight-scenes are great - Hyams nailed a big-budget look for the most part - but it fell apart in the writing. I wasn't particularly interested in Arlovski's character; he was more like that buff villain the hero takes out second-to-last, and Scott's character was introduced half way through, for no apparent reason and goes on to melt down - again, for no apparent reason.

Also, wasn't a fan of the fact that they undo everything Deveraux went through in the first movie. The showdown between him and Scott should've felt epic, but since our hero was a mindless killing machine, it was pretty perfunctory.

Still, I'd be up for another one. Or even better, I'd be keen to see Hyams tackle an action movie that's got a bit more meat in the screenplay.

Amen.

The whole bit still feels shoehorned in. Why would he clone one of the few Universal Soldiers who went off the rail instead of, say, another Orlovski and why does Scott's character lose it almost immediately instead of having it be some sort of gradual thing?

All of that aside, I felt like if they were gonna get both the original actors, they should've at least given it more significance.

Nah, I thought it was a great moment. Especially for fans. And the fight was also awesome as it sort of picked up where the other one left off.

As for the writing... as odd as it may seem, I don't usually enter into these sorts of pictures looking for great stuff. As such, I thought it more than surpassed my expectations. It's actually very likely the best-written of the series.

I liked the confused rage of Sgt. Scott too. It's also cool how they clone him to have him under control, and he goes straight back to being a psycho. Sgt. Scott's insanity can't be extracted, even from his clone.

I'm looking forward to the new one that they're tossing around that will have Dolph back.

Also after finally playing Call Of Duty 4, I understand why everyone mentions it during the action scenes.