UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING

John’s wife and daughter are viciously killed in front of his eyes during a home invasion. He is beaten into a coma and reawakens nine months later suffering from memory loss. Only visions of the attack replay within his memories especially the face of the man responsible for the crime. This man is none other than Luc Deveraux (Van Damme), the original Universal Soldier. Deveraux is liberating deactivated Universal Soldiers in preparation for a mass uprising against the government. Meanwhile John’s only goal is to kill Deveraux and avenge the death of his family. His only obstacle is another Universal Soldier, hunting him at every turn, hell-bent on killing him. John must pull together the pieces of his past in order to find the answers to his present, but his search for the truth will alter is reality for good.

This film is the fourth in the Universal Soldier (UniSol) movie franchise. What started with director Roland Emmerich’s now classic Universal Soldier (1992) has progressed into a string of B-Movie sequels. The term ‘B-Movie’ simply means a low budget commercial film that will likely be released on DVD and not in theaters. These budget movies have considerably reduced finances compared to main stream Hollywood films. This will subsequently require casting cheaper actors, creating thrifty special effects and constructing frugal action scenes. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is unlike its three predecessors, this film’s story really has nothing to do with the previous storylines. It follows a new character down a path that doesn’t even look or feel like the UniSol universe. Akin to The Bourne Identity (2002), this film also shows the lead character in search of answers. The ‘memory loss’ plot device is a convenient method to give the audience the run-around in-between action scenes. But unfortunately between the first action scene and the second lies a sluggishly long gap. Seeing a fascinating plot unfold in a B-Movie is probably asking too much, but at least make it coherent. Instead Day of Reckoning takes what should have been an action packed movie and twists it into a dull drama.

Although Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren return to this third sequel they merely have supporting parts. In fact Van Dame probably has less than ten minutes of screen time. The Luc Deveraux character started off as the good guy but has now morphed into a sinister villain. Van Damme is one of the few action stars capable of actually acting. He gives an interesting performance and so does Lundgren who plays the ‘crazy sociopath’ role quite naturally. Scott Adkins is a B-movie action star but he has had a few supporting roles in a number of big budget films; namely The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Expendables 2 (2012). ‘Acting,’ is not Adkins’ forte but he does display some mean martial arts skills. Any scene in which he’s kicking butt is good but his dialogue scenes are unbearable at times.

This film’s novelty lies not in its story or action scenes but in the actual ‘feel’ of the film. Although the UniSol series is categorized in the action genre, the Day of Reckoning lighting and ambience is similar to a horror film. Excessive use of point of view (POV) shots, fade-to-white transitions and strobe light effects give the film a creepy quality. The ‘look’ of the picture stands out when compared with past UniSol films which had a sort of streamlined look to the camera work. Even the score has an eerie tone to it, a noticeable departure from the typical action movie score template. The action scenes are far from spectacular; in fact this particular UniSol film showcases the least amount of action out of all four flicks.

The quality of this film series can be likened to the line on a heart rate monitor; the peaks representing the good films and the valleys representing the bad. The classic Universal Soldier (1992) set the foundation for an awesome franchise, but this was demolished by the first sequel Universal Soldier: The Return (1999). The second sequel Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) generated new life into the series but now with Day of Reckoning the series is yet again flat lining. Director John Hyams definitely exhibits a sense of style and credit must be given to directors who try to mix things up from one film to the next. But having directed Regeneration prior to directing Day of Reckoning, Hyams should have stuck to the same formula and left the experimentation for another film. Day of Reckoning is too slow paced for an action movie and at times outright boring. As the Americans say, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!’

Rating: 2/10

S. V. Fernando