Universal Soldier starts in Vietnam where Private Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) & his superior Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) get into an argument about killing innocent Vietnamese natives & end up killing each other instead. Jump forward twenty odd years & both Deveraux, Scott & several other dead US soldiers have been re-animated as living soldiers with superhuman powers & the ability to regenerate. Nosey network reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) discovers what the military is up to & threatens to break the story to the public, Colonel Perry (Ed O'Ross) can't risk that so sends Universal Soldiers Deveraux & Scott to kill her, remembering back to Vietnam Deveraux again stops Scott from killing an innocent person & in the process annoys Perry who orders both Deveraux & Roberts hunted down & killed...
Directed by Roland Emmerich this obvious sci-fi action cash-in on the then recent success & popularity of both Robocop (1987) & Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is actually a very enjoyable way to pass 100 odd minutes. The script by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch & Dean Devlin takes prominent themes from both Robocop & Terminator 2 like the idea cybernetic type protagonists, plenty of full-on action scenes, lots of violence & profanity, a seemingly emotionless robot/soldier/cop used for corporate/military purposes that starts to regain some of their humanity as well as an attempt at a bit of social commentary & satire although these little stabs don't really hit the mark here & are a mild distraction at best. The whole film is set-up for a string of ever more ambitious set-piece action scenes & from that viewpoint Universal Soldier is all it sets out to be, an enjoyable fast paced sci-fi actioner that doesn't require too many brain cells to understand. The character's are a bit clichéd though like the reporter looking for a big story who stumbles upon more than she bargained for, the single minded military Colonel who puts the mission before anything else & a main bad guy who in this case turns out to be Sergeant Scott to chase the hero for rather tenuous reasons. It's all here, it all works very well, it's a lot of fun & there's plenty of dramatic incident if nothing else.
Universal Soldier was Emmerich's break through film & has gone on to make such big budget fare like Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), the excellent (I don't care what anyone says) Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) & 10,000 B.C. (2008), his subsequent efforts have been considerably less bloody & violent than Universal Soldier though. He does a good job here, get the DVD version & watch it in full 2:35:1 widescreen & enjoy a stylish & well made film. There are several violent martial arts scenes, some good old bar room brawl style fights, several severed ears, there are plenty of gory gunshot wounds including a fair few head shots & a gory impaling. The action scenes are well put together from the bus chase to various shoot-outs to an exploding garage. According to the IMDb the working title for Universal Soldier was Crystal Knights, I am not sure how truthful that is because the title Crystal Knights means absolutely nothing when placed alongside the finished film which is maybe why they changed it but why call it Crystal Knights in the first place?
With a supposed budget of about $23,000,000 this is very well made with good production values, special effects, photography & stunts. Shot in Arizona. The acting is OK, I've always liked JCVD & think he's fine in this & he gets to show of his naked bum again, Lundgren has never been a great actor but he does OK in a standard mad as a hatter bad guy role & the two can fight so all in all they make a good pairing. Ed O'Ross & Jerry Orbach from Law & Order (1991 - 2004) provide the acting talent. Looking through the credits it seems that Eric Norris has a small role & he is in fact the youngest son of 80's action star Chuck Norris! Why didn't the filmmakers just hire Chuck? I mean JCVD, Dolph Lundgren & Chuck Norris all in the same film? I am shaking just thinking about it...
Universal Soldier is a great sci-fi action film that delivers both plenty of sci-fi & action just as it should, it's not the most deep or meaningful film ever but it sure entertains for 100 odd minutes & to be frank what more do you want? Followed by the made-for-telly Canadian productions Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998) & Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998) & then a theatrically released sequel Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) for which JCVD returned as Luc Deveraux.
Directed by Roland Emmerich this obvious sci-fi action cash-in on the then recent success & popularity of both Robocop (1987) & Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is actually a very enjoyable way to pass 100 odd minutes. The script by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch & Dean Devlin takes prominent themes from both Robocop & Terminator 2 like the idea cybernetic type protagonists, plenty of full-on action scenes, lots of violence & profanity, a seemingly emotionless robot/soldier/cop used for corporate/military purposes that starts to regain some of their humanity as well as an attempt at a bit of social commentary & satire although these little stabs don't really hit the mark here & are a mild distraction at best. The whole film is set-up for a string of ever more ambitious set-piece action scenes & from that viewpoint Universal Soldier is all it sets out to be, an enjoyable fast paced sci-fi actioner that doesn't require too many brain cells to understand. The character's are a bit clichéd though like the reporter looking for a big story who stumbles upon more than she bargained for, the single minded military Colonel who puts the mission before anything else & a main bad guy who in this case turns out to be Sergeant Scott to chase the hero for rather tenuous reasons. It's all here, it all works very well, it's a lot of fun & there's plenty of dramatic incident if nothing else.
Universal Soldier was Emmerich's break through film & has gone on to make such big budget fare like Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), the excellent (I don't care what anyone says) Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) & 10,000 B.C. (2008), his subsequent efforts have been considerably less bloody & violent than Universal Soldier though. He does a good job here, get the DVD version & watch it in full 2:35:1 widescreen & enjoy a stylish & well made film. There are several violent martial arts scenes, some good old bar room brawl style fights, several severed ears, there are plenty of gory gunshot wounds including a fair few head shots & a gory impaling. The action scenes are well put together from the bus chase to various shoot-outs to an exploding garage. According to the IMDb the working title for Universal Soldier was Crystal Knights, I am not sure how truthful that is because the title Crystal Knights means absolutely nothing when placed alongside the finished film which is maybe why they changed it but why call it Crystal Knights in the first place?
With a supposed budget of about $23,000,000 this is very well made with good production values, special effects, photography & stunts. Shot in Arizona. The acting is OK, I've always liked JCVD & think he's fine in this & he gets to show of his naked bum again, Lundgren has never been a great actor but he does OK in a standard mad as a hatter bad guy role & the two can fight so all in all they make a good pairing. Ed O'Ross & Jerry Orbach from Law & Order (1991 - 2004) provide the acting talent. Looking through the credits it seems that Eric Norris has a small role & he is in fact the youngest son of 80's action star Chuck Norris! Why didn't the filmmakers just hire Chuck? I mean JCVD, Dolph Lundgren & Chuck Norris all in the same film? I am shaking just thinking about it...
Universal Soldier is a great sci-fi action film that delivers both plenty of sci-fi & action just as it should, it's not the most deep or meaningful film ever but it sure entertains for 100 odd minutes & to be frank what more do you want? Followed by the made-for-telly Canadian productions Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998) & Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998) & then a theatrically released sequel Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) for which JCVD returned as Luc Deveraux.