universal soldier : the return ( m ) . ( columbia tristar ) director : mic rodgers stars : jean-claude van damme , michael jai white , bill goldberg , daniel von bargen , kiana tom , justin lazard . jean-claude van damme reprises his character of luc devereaux , the regenerated soldier , for this risible second sequel to 1992's violent futuristic thriller universal soldier . van damme was absent from the dire 1998 sequel universal soldier ii brothers in arms , in which his character was played by another performer . that film disappeared straight to video in this country . van damme's return doesn't necessarily herald an improvement in quality , but it does ensure that universal soldier : the return gains a brief cinema release before disappearing into the same video wilderness that has claimed most of his recent lacklustre efforts . with the end of the cold war , the military is drastically reducing its budget . the first cutbacks affect the futuristic unisol project , in which dead soldiers are regenerated and turned into virtually indestructible cyborgs . but seth , the super-intelligent computer responsible for much of the unisol project , rebels against the government's plans , and seizes control of the soldiers . seth manages to assume human form ( martial arts star michael jai white ) and lead his invincible troops as they take over the top secret complex that houses the unisol project . as a stand-off develops between the regular army and the cyborgs it falls to devereaux to try and stop seth's plans . mic rodgers , a former stunt co-ordinator who has worked on films including titanic and lethal weapon 4 , makes his directorial debut here . he handles the action and pyrotechnics effectively enough , but he lacks the flair and visual style of original creators roland emmerich and dean devlin . universal soldier the return lacks the energy and spectacularly staged action sequences of the original . this highly unlikely scenario uses the original provocative theme purely as an excuse for lots of testosterone-fuelled action , loud explosions , gratuitous mayhem , formulaic and mindless carnage . whereas the original managed to pit van damme against fellow action star dolph lundgren , the best this dire sequel can do is pit our uncharismatic muscle bound hero against bill goldberg , the popular wrestler , whose woeful , one-dimensional performance takes the craft of screen acting to a new low . universal soldier the return is a far cry from van damme's superior action thrillers like time cop and sudden death , and further demonstrates just how far his career has fallen . the scene in which his character complains that he doesn't want to be stereotyped resonates with an unintentional irony . this is one return that is both unnecessary and unwelcome . 
