Review of Universal Soldier

Introduction

From the late 80’s to mid 90’s, the ‘Muscles From Brussels’ Jean-Claude Van Damme had a string of action hits that, if not gained him critical appreciation, at least made him a bit of a cult hero for those weaned on Arnie and Sly movies. Universal Soldier, released in 1992, was his biggest hit and teamed up the former kickboxer with fellow karate champ Dolph Lundgren – some of you may remember him as the villain from Rocky VI, uttering the immortal line, “If he dies, he dies!”

The plot is simple yet strangely intriguing – a bunch of deceased soldiers are harvested into cyborg killing machines. Of course, this doesn’t go exactly to plan, as Van Damme and Lundgren start to remember some of their past life. What follows is a mishmash of T2, Robocop and Platoon – imagine Sergeants Barnes and Elias reborn and thrown into an action movie, and it’s good guy vs. bad guy again.

But does the disc pack as much of a punch as this foreign duo does?

Video

The transfer is a fine example of what DVD can do. The picture is clear, pretty much flawless and also handles the numerous dark scenes extremely well.

Audio

The 5.1 soundtrack comes in a choice of two flavours: Dolby Digital and DTS. The DD version is a cracking little track that makes good use of the spatial effects and LFE. The DTS is a noticeable cut above the DD version – the only way to explain it is to say that everything sounds clearer and more precise. Superb audio.

Features

Momentum has included a good set of extras here that compliment the film. The Making-Of is one of those PR-spin features that sadly only lasts 6 minutes, but fortunately it does give an insight into the movie. The behind-the-scenes clocks in at a longer 15 mins, and is basically a B-Roll of on-set footage – interesting viewing nonetheless. Two trailers are also present.

However, the centerpiece is the Director and Writer commentary, which is one of the better ones I’ve heard. Emmerich and Devlin seem very enthusiastic, telling lots of anecdotes and devoting similar time to the technical and personal side of making Universal Soldier. I don’t know if Momentum are just using pre-existing extras, or have commissioned this commentary specially, but in either case I am very happy with the result!

Conclusion

I must say that I have a certain fondness for Universal Soldier, having watched it too many times as a kid. Now I have watched it again recently, I still think it’s an excellent action movie! This is the first of the Devlin-Emmerich connection, which led to later sci-fi action blockbusters Independence Day and Stargate, amongst others.

The stunts are, quite frankly, outstanding, including an excellent opening in the Hoover Dam. Whilst you wouldn’t expect great performances, the humour is well delivered by the two leads – their wooden acting well suited to robots – and especially kooky reporter Ally Walker. A highly enjoyable popcorn flick.

The DVD is also outstanding. This R2 is the best version available at the time of writing, and any other version would be hard pushed to beat this disc. The extras are generous, if not packed, and the picture and sound are top-notch.