This movie was surprisingly good. It mostly takes place in and around the Chernobyl reactor area. Some people are taken hostage, and they are in need of rescue.

It's place in the Universal Soldier series is not an easy one to pinpoint. I've only seen the first one from 1992 and "Universal Soldier: The Return" from 1999. It doesn't compare to either in terms of tone or feel. Some original characters are in the film, but that is about it. The best thing to do when viewing this movie would probably be to forget any UniSol film other than the first one, and from that one only bring the knowledge of the basic events and characters, and the concept of the UniSol program. "Regeneration" is very different in style, tone and execution to the original 1992 film, so if you expect any continuity in these areas, you might be disappointed. Luc Deveraux is portrayed as a broken man, if he can even be called that anymore. Not much is shown of his everyday life, other than the fact that he sees a psychiatrist and has problems with his memory. If you ever are going to accept the premise of people who are killed being brought back to life and used as brainwashed genetically enhanced soldiers who can even be "programmed" like computers before being sent into a war zone, this movie portraying them as semi-zombie hunks of meat is probably as realistic and thematically cohesive as you are going to get (again, forget any previous UniSol movie where Van Damme cracks smiles, or has kids, or jokes around with other UniSols).

It has a very dark tone throughout, and the plot and events are very straightforward. The movie is more in the area of horror/action than the original films action with mild comedic moments. There are basically no humorous elements in the script at all, no romance and even no fairly light moments.

The acting is quite passable, and but for a few examples no one stands out as either good or bad. Since the movie is not very "Hollywood" in being overly dramatized or containing witty comments etc, actors get by well by just keeping it simple.

The action and combat sequences are very nicely filmed and choreographed and are the highlight of the film. The musical score is very bare-bones and atmospheric with mostly moody underscore and percussive elements, and contains no string elements to evoke emotion or brass to punctuate moments of action.

See if it you like "realistic" and unforgiving action (think the recent Rambo film) and consistency in tone and execution, and if you like the original film, or the general concept. Also if you are drawn to films with a quite hopeless, empty or apocalyptic atmosphere.

Avoid it if you want a more conventional "Van Damme-film", or expect any humor or easily digested entertainment.

I have a confession to make – I have never seen a Universal Soldier film, not in its entirety anyway, nor even the original way back in 1992 when it starred Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as these programmed super soldiers who are impervious to pain, and a small troupe can take out battalions of a conventional army. For those like me who are not well versed in the mythos, fret not as this film's subtitle – a new beginning – made it a point to do a quick recap of the secret super soldier programme to bring us all up to speed to where the film now takes place.

There were some in the audience who found it rather startling that the film opened in abrupt manner, chiefly because this is meant for the straight to video market overseas. So the distributor's logo doesn't kick in to pre-empt you that this is not a trailer, but the start of the film proper. And boy does it start with a bang, with an ambitious, noisy car chase cum massacre where a small group of freedom fighters kidnap the children of the Russian Prime Minister, and demands the release of their countrymen in lockup, in which failure meant the killing of the kidnapped children, plus the detonation of another reactor in Chernobyl where they are dug in, which has enough radioactive material to cause another fallout.

This of course mobilizes a NATO-Russian alliance of sorts to fight back with 2 mission objectives under 72 hours, with the only snag in the mission being the use of an NGU (Next Generation Uni-Sol) by the opposition, played to mean perfection by Andrei Arlovski as the ultimate killing machine who feels no pain and dishes out his fair share of punishment to maim and kill without remorse. The response of course is for the coalition to send in their own Uni-Sols, which are painfully outdated and obsolete when faced with the NGJ, so all hopes rest on one man, Jean Claude Van Damme, erm, his Luc Deveraux that is.

Director John Hyams keeps it tight and relevant here by creating a film that doesn't try too much fanciful stuff. It's good ol' military and B-action all the way, which at times resembled a violent video game especially in JCVD's first mission outing when unleashed into enemy territory, adopting a third person, behind the character view as he charges and cuts through enemy ranks. Then there's some nifty camera-work as well, the highlight being a continuous take where it's a Counter-strike game-type with JCVD going from primary rifle, to secondary firearm, to default knife, and the fists as he rips through scores of faceless soldiers. I thought that was one of the best action sequences in the film, since the much touted plummeting with Dolph Lundgren, who also returned for this film, was nothing not already seen before, save for the expectation of a rematch here.

For action junkies, there is a bit of a nostalgia in seeing how our old school action heroes still have it in them to carry a movie and give the new wannabes a run for their money. Visibly aged, this film follows the trend of late with our 80s action icons coming out and banding together for one last hurrah. While this may be for the video market in the US, it certainly didn't scrimp on its limited production values to turn in something professional looking, with some impressive gory action compensating for a standard, average plot with room to grow the franchise further. Now bring on The Expendables, and boy, will we action fans just rejoice with that reunion!

After the disappointment of Universal 2 I was afraid this would be just as bad or maybe worse. To my surprise it ended up being a pretty good action movie. The story is straight forward. A situation arises and requires the return of Luck (Van Damme). The fighting scenes are pretty well crafted and the return of Lundgren was quite enjoyable. I suppose I need to remind people again that these types of movies are not intended to change the world! They are action movies and should be reviewed as such. As far as the bad, the story is really basic and the movie is a little short. I was pleasantly surprised by the acting overall. Yeah there is almost no dialogue, but Lundgren and Van Damme seemed to have learned a little bit about their craft. I hope Van Damme continues to make these types of movies and I look forward to one of them getting a serious theatrical release. It's been a long times since one of these movies has hit the big screen. I for one would love to support this type of movie.