Review of Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) by Dan T — 29 Oct 2012

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.

DoR is an unbelievable surprise taking everything I expected and delivered more. It's sheer brutality, great performances, locales and great story telling make this my favorite Universal Solider movie of all four films.

First off, if you're unaware of what a Universal Soldier is, it is a "super soldier". A soldier that has the strength of a dozen men. They can survive bullet wounds and dismemberment and can regenerate outside of combat. However they can die from a few shots to the head or a snapped neck.

"Daddy. There's monsters in the house.".

The beginning was terrifying. It takes place from a first person perspective through main character: John's( played by amazing martial artist Scott Adkins) eyes and is all in one take. He investigates the house for his daughter who claims there are monsters, but John doesn't believe her.

"Nope nothing in the bedroom." Says John.

"The kitchen daddy!".

"Nothing in the bathroom at all sweety.".

"Dad I said the kitchen!".

John opens the door and sees three huge men all covered in black with face masks on staring directly into his eyes. We as the viewers get dark creepy stares right at us.

John gets hit six or so times in the face with a crowbar from one of the guys, falling over and spitting out blood and teeth. His daughter and wife are brought into the kitchen. One of the men comes toward him as John screams in pain as takes off his mask. It's Luc Deveraux (played by a very creepy looking Jean Claude Van Damme).

Luc stares directly at his eyes and doesn't say a single word. As John screams in pain Luc shoots his wife in the head. He turns around looking directly into his eyes. John screams for him to stop. Luc shows no mercy and shoots his daughter right in the face.

We pick up six months later at a hospital with John.

This beginning really caught me off guard. It was so damn creative and creepy. The use of slow motion made the scene even more powerful and the score used made it so terrifying. It really sets the mood for the rest of the film.

John vows to get revenge on Luc. He sets out to find information on his location. His first stop is a strip club in which a contact of his told him to check out. He takes a trip to the restroom and gets stabbed in the neck with some sort of needle. The man who did this was Magnus (played by the awesome Andre "The Pitbull" Arlovski who was from the third Universal Soldier movie). John immediately starts to have visions of Luc and is eventually kicked out by the bouncers.

We then hop over to Andrew Scott (played by Dolph Lundgren) talking to a group of about 50 other Universal Soldiers. We find out that a serum was made that allowed the Universal Soldiers to think freely. They can no longer be controlled if this serum is injected into their bodies. His plan is to get the soldiers all together and attack the humans.

There are a ton if twists in the film. In the trailer it does explain that John (Scott Adkins) is a Universal Soldier.

He ends up having an incredibly brutal fight with Magnus (Arlovski). Keep in mind, Universal Soldiers are "super soldiers". They can survive bullets to the chest and dismemberment. However they still bleed like a human and can die to a bullet to the head.

They completely destroy each other. Fingers getting cut off, metal bats to the back of the head. Eventually John destroy him in a crazy cool way.

John eventually infiltrates the main base of the Universal Soldiers and starts going through them one by one killing dozens of them. He then encounters Andrew(Lundgren) and had a really unique gun fight and machete battle with him.

He eventually gets to Luc (Van Damme) who now has white and black paint on his face. This fight was just awesome. It is one of the coolest fights I've seen, next to The Raid Redemption, and some of the stunts pulled off really show Scott Adkins talent and prove that Van Damme still has it.

I was a bit disappointed however that Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were not main characters. They had fairly big parts but Scott Adkins was the main character. Luckily I really like Scott Adkins. He is an extremely talented fighter and a damn good actor.

The movie still has a low budget, but here you can't tell one bit. With all the awesome locales and costumes, and amazingly choreographed fight scenes, it really shows that you don't need a high budget to make a good action movie. The fights are extremely brutal, violent and destructive. These guys must have put forth a lot if hard work and I think it payed off.

The filming is also fantastic. It grabs the intensity of the fight scenes perfectly and makes every moment feel terrifying with its soundtrack.

5/5.

The movie is available on demand.