Day 88- Movie 86. Universal Soldier (1992)

The main reason I wanted to watch this movie is because I generally like director Roland Emmerich. He makes some admittedly trashy movies, but I'm also a huge fan of films like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. They might be considered bad, but I enjoy them regardless. This film was his first big Hollywood production, and it comes across as from a filmmaker still honing his craft (read: poorly executed). The movie is loud, action-packed, and intense, but it's also stupid, noisy, and illogical.

The story is about a governmental program that brought back dead U.S. soldiers from Vietnam, turning them into super soldiers. The two best "universal" soldiers are Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, two fighters who died in '69 while battling each other over killing innocent lives (or something stupid like that). Some preposterous events occur that lead Van Damme and a reporter to escape the facility and go on the run from the rest of the super soldiers. Typing that out makes me realize just how laughable the story is.

Anyway, the story matters very little in a film like this. Emmerich does put together some decent action scenes- there's an interesting gunfight at the Hoover Dam, a car chase that takes place at the Grand Canyon, and a climactic battle in an old farmhouse. I suppose these scenes are well executed, but they aren't particularly memorable. They do just enough to keep you somewhat interested in the film.

Wisely, the movie moves quickly enough so that we don't have much time to reflect on how bad it is until the end. It pushes the action and intensity up so that there are very few slow moments. Unfortunately, the film is filled with cliches and the script was just too poorly written. There were some interesting ideas present here, but the movie doesn't capitalize on them at all. This could have been a very good movie, but instead, it's pretty bad. The gaps in logic and plot holes are too overwhelming, and the film never recovers from them.

I am surprised that this film did well enough at the box office and on VHS (1992, remember?) to spawn a number of sequels. I think they were all direct-to-video, though, and I have no desire to watch any of them. I can appreciate a decent movie meant purely to entertain, but I hate when movies are completely and totally mindless. Universal Soldier is not a good movie. I'd give this film a generous 5.5/10.

Has anyone seen any of the sequels? I can't imagine they are worth checking out, but let me know if I'm wrong.