Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (Uncut) - DVD

Film: When John (Scott Adkins) awakens from a coma that lasted several months, he can't remember more than a few details from his life. But he will never forget how a group of strange men invaded his home and he helplessly watched as their leader Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) brutally murdered his wife and young daughter. At all costs, John wants to take out the killing machine. In the process, he finds out that Deveraux is a Universal Soldier, an elite former soldier of the U.S. government who has now turned against his former employer. Soon John is on the trail of a large-scale conspiracy, as Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), Luc Deveraux's former counterpart, plans to lead all Universal Soldiers in a battle for world domination. This is a fight John can't seem to win, especially since a real killing machine, Universal Soldier Magnus (Andrei Arlovski), has nipped at his heels...

With Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, director John Hyams continues the military killing machine franchise started by Roland Emmerich in 1992 in a very drastic but thoroughly entertaining way. After the success of Emmerich's Terminator clone, an attempt was made in 1998 to continue the series with two films on television. After these were not a great success, Jean-Claude Van Damme returned for a movie sequel as Universal Solider. But this film also lacked the hoped-for success, which is why the franchise was initially put on hold. It wasn't until 2009 that Hyams managed to convince Dolph Lundgren to make a UniSol comeback alongside Van Damme. With the two stars from the first film in tow, he was able to direct Universal Soldier: Regeneration, which completely ignored not only the events from the two TV movies, but also the second theatrical film, and went its very own way, which was quite well received by fans. The film was such a huge success on DVD that Hyams has now been allowed to follow up with another.

Once again he was able to sign up Van Damme and Lundgren, but reduced their characters to smaller supporting roles in the latest film. The focus this time is the martial arts professional Scott Adkins, who had already been in front of the camera next to the two Ur-UniSols in The Expendables 2. While Adkins once again has to primarily show off his fighting skills, there are also a few moments where he is called upon to act. And even in these scenes he does his thing pleasingly well. So even die-hard fans should be able to get over the fact that Van Damme and Lundgren only play second fiddle here.

The action and fight scenes are good, but staged very drastically and extremely bloody. So much so that the film in its uncut version did not even get the FSK 18 Sigel, but SPIO checked with the rating No serious youth endangerment was released. The FSK 18 version had to endure some drastic cuts, which is why true fans naturally reach for the Uncut version.

The only real problem with the film is its sometimes somewhat muddled story, which is visually realized a bit strenuously in places. For in some scenes Hyams relies on extreme strobe effects. And these glaring flashes of light are very tiring for the eyes in the long run. Apart from that, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is an absolutely solid action thriller that doesn't simply copy its predecessors, but tries to really continue the story while breaking new ground. True, neither the dialogue nor the actors are really award-worthy and the story isn't exactly a prime example of in-depth logic. But that only very marginally detracts from the entertainment value of this gritty action firework. Who liked Universal Soldier: Regeneration and generally appreciates action films of the slightly harder pace, can safely risk a look here. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The very clean picture of the DVD has a very good overall sharpness, which can be seen especially in the brighter moments even smaller details very well. The color scheme is rather undercooled, which fits well with the gloomy atmosphere of the film. The sound has some good surround effects to offer, especially in the fight scenes and the action sequences, which provide pleasant movement in the tonal action. The dialogues, on the other hand, are mixed very centrally and seem somewhat less harmoniously embedded in the events in the German version than in the original English version. Overall, this gets a: Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has promo interviews with the director and the actors, as well as some photos from the shooting, a picture gallery and the trailer for the film to offer. The best insight into the making of the film is provided by the interview with John Hyams. Not really stunning, but okay!

Conclusion: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is, at least in the uncut version, an extremely brutal, gritty and entertaining action thriller, whose story may seem a little confused and effort in places, but which takes one of the front places in the Universal Soldier franchise without question. The DVD is technically converted, the bonus material is clear and also a bit superficial. Nevertheless: for all Universal Soldier fans and lovers of action of the particularly hard variety this uncut version is in any case: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp