Honestly, it's pretty astonishing that this movie exists; it's the sort of project that could only have been brought into being via complete studio indifference to a franchise that probably should have died almost two decades ago. It's almost comically brutal, frequently surreal, and far, far more pretentious and high-minded than a movie called Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning has any right being. It's an art-horror movie hiding underneath the skin of action trash, and thinking of all the meathead bros who got tricked into watching what can best be described as what would happen if Gaspar Noe remade Apocalypse Now warms the cockles of my withered heart.
Maybe I'm overselling this. Universial Soldier: Day of Reckoning isn't quite as deep or clever as it thinks it is, but it WORKS. It's hypnotic and frequently mesmerizing in spite of its flaws, and the action scenes contain some of the best fight choreography you'll see in a modern American action movie. It's not a great movie, but it's damn good, and worth watching if just for what a gutsy move it was to make a late-in- the-game DTV sequel to a trashy movie no one really cares about as genuinely affecting and ambitious as this.
Maybe I'm overselling this. Universial Soldier: Day of Reckoning isn't quite as deep or clever as it thinks it is, but it WORKS. It's hypnotic and frequently mesmerizing in spite of its flaws, and the action scenes contain some of the best fight choreography you'll see in a modern American action movie. It's not a great movie, but it's damn good, and worth watching if just for what a gutsy move it was to make a late-in- the-game DTV sequel to a trashy movie no one really cares about as genuinely affecting and ambitious as this.