Amazingly enough I went into this movie thinking it would be complete crap because of JCVD and Dolph "I can't act" Ludgren, but it was much better than a lot of other action movies, including Terminator: Salvation.

A lot of people might be hesitant because of the conflicting reviews, but ignore the whole "This is bad because it has Jean Claude in it..." stigma and you might be as surprised as I was after watching it. In fact, I found myself watching it a few times again because, through and through, it's an extremely engaging film.

What actually shocked me is that it covers an important social issue of terrorism versus political tyranny; using terrorism to maintain (and gain) freedom as well as capitalist control of armies without nations. Yeah, it's a movie that actually covers something important about sociality.

As a lot of other people pointed out, though, Jean Claude and Dolph only lend their faces for brief (in Dolph's case) and extended (in Jean's case) cameos. This film is not really about the aging action heroes but rather, they play a part in the outcome of things, very similar to Snipe's role in Blade 2.

As for quality...the movie is shot to look like the Bourne Identity and even has a cool chase scene like it, too. All the action is depicted with startling realism and all fist-fights result in such because people either run out of ammo or get too close to use weapons. In other words, all the fight scenes in this movie make a heck of a lot of sense and are very realistic and practical. Added to this, the musical score is extremely fitting to the science-fiction overtones.

Overall, this movie is leaps and bounds better than every other Universal Soldier movie made before it and actually takes itself serious enough to deserve better praise than what it's been receiving.

Some excellent low-budget action sequences bring life to an otherwise hackneyed film in this umpteenth UNIVERSAL SOLDIER sequel. This one's notable for featuring not only Van Damme but Lundgren as well (in case you were wondering, he's been cloned since the original) and the film itself is distinguished by a series of breakneck fight sequences in which various participants commit mayhem with guns and knives. From the opening kidnapping scenario through to a single, outstanding tracking shot that sees Van Damme entering a derelict building to take down a number of criminals, this is action as it should be – and refreshingly free of the jump-cut editing that's ruined so many other action films recently (THE EXPENDABLES, anyone?).

Elsewhere, the storyline is weak (and virtually non-existent) and director John Hyams (son of Peter, who pops up on the credits here as cinematographer) only comes to life during said action. The presence of Van Damme and Lundgren is a bit of a cheat, as Van Damme's in it for all of twenty minutes and Lundgren shows up for about five. The main star is Andrei 'The Pitbull' Arlovski, a bullet-headed hardnut with a penchant for snapping necks, and the violence is as strong as it gets. Maybe not sophisticated entertainment, nonetheless this one sure is entertaining.

Story wise, this is something you really didn't need (and if it is true, that there will be another one, you can only wonder, why ... well for the money of course, but still). Van Damme tries to flesh out the role he got, but while there are flashes of emotions (or absence of them),it never really hits home.

The finale per se, isn't that spectacular either. It's standard and nicely edited. But especially considering the pacing and editing of the first action sequence at the beginning, the ending feels almost like a let down. It is the beginning then and a few scenes in between that let me give this 4 stars. If I were to rate the story ... well you can guess the rest.

I have seen quite a few (almost all) of van Dammes movies and even with Tsui Hark, he tried to show his acting "muscles", but it seems he is doomed to the action genre, because everybody wants to see him do his kicks and punches. A fact, that led to the failure of Nowhere to Run too (though it wasn't a great movie) ...

There is one thing I do wonder though: Dolph Lundgren wants to say something, but says he forgot. And when he remembers it, we never hear him say, what it was ... a shame really, but maybe just a McGuffin