Universal Soldier II: The Return

Former Universal Soldier Luc Devreaux, played by Matt Battaglia, has escaped from the military program that revived him from the dead as a super soldier. He and journalist Veronica Roberts, played by Chandra West, are in hiding on his parents’ farm. The Unisol controllers then activate a homing signal installed inside Devreaux’s body that makes him return to the Unisol base in Chicago where his memory is reprogrammed. Veronica follows him. Sneaking into the Unisol lab to rescue Luc, she discovers that his older brother, Eric, played by Jeff Wincott, has also been revived. At the same time, the program is stolen by the evil Otto Mazur, played by Gary Busey, who wants to sell the Universal Soldiers to terrorist groups. As Luc and Veronica try to stop him, Mazur uses Eric as a pawn.

The first “Universal Soldier” was a decent hit when it was released, but from what he have seen with the sequels, you would have thought it was a huge success that became popular. “Universal Soldier II: The Return,” released in 1998, was the first of two low-budget Canadian-made for television sequels that were made back-to-back, which was followed by the third film.

This sequel looks poorly made. Moira said in her review, “Moreover, it collapses into utter laughability in the opening scene, which has soldiers gathering on a beach and lots of posed slow-motion striding as the officers led by Gary Busey arrive, before Busey shoots them and then sheds a tear. What makes the scene so laughable is the fact that it, with a bizarre inappropriateness, is scored with Norman Greenbaum’s catchy rock song Spirits in the Sky (1969). Later, with equal pretentiousness, we have the slow-motion explosion of a truck accompanied by The Blue Danube. Just about every stride, every action that someone takes throughout the film is shot in slow– and sped-up motion or edited with jump cuts, which tends to suggest a director who has allowed their stylistic pretensions to get the better of them.”

As the protagonist, Jean-Claude Van Damme has been replaced by Matt Battaglia. Moira mentioned, “Battaglia is appropriately wooden and stiff in the part, although it is hard to tell if this is intended as part of the performance or not. Despite supposedly being emotionless, Matt Battaglia is outfitted with a series of deadpan Schwarzenegger-esque one-liners – “It’s time to take out the garbage,” he says as he throws one assailant into a trashcan.”

Moira continued, “Since Universal Solider, Ally Walker went onto better and greater things in tv’s Profiler (1996-2000) and the part of Veronica Roberts has now been recast with a standardised blonde bimbo in Chandra West.” There is a surprise cameo at the end from Burt Reynolds, who becomes the villain in the next film.

As you might have guessed, for this to be a made-for-television sequel, it was terribly done. If you loved the first film, which is possible because I think there are people who might have been fans of it, then don’t see this sequel. Avoid it at all cost because, like all made-for-television sequels, it spells disaster. I don’t see why they would make a sequel to an action film that was a product of the 90s that wasn’t really anything so grand.

Stay tuned next week when we look at the third film in “Universal Soldier Month.”