It was with mixed emotions that I watched a friend’s link to the trailer for Universal Soldier 3 on Facebook the other day. On the one hand, I really like bad action movies (I can’t wait for Ninja Assassin, starring Korean pop star Rain - you know that one’s gonna be great!) I’ve also always kinda secretly pulled for Jean Claude Van Damme, and perhaps even a little bit for Dolph Lundgren. After all, the man who brought us Ivan Drago deserves so much better.

On the other hand, I can’t understand why this movie is being made. It’s not like the previous one did mondo box office. Have fans been clamouring for another sequel? Somehow I doubt it. Maybe Van Damme is about to undergo a Mickey Rourke-like resurrection after his acclaimed performance in JCVD, a movie that was about… him. (I won’t even make the obvious joke about how he did well in it because he didn’t have to act… wait a minute, I just did, whoops!)

Here’s the Universal Soldier 3 trailer - check it out, it’s full of Van Dammage:

I suppose the reason I sort of like these movies is because they reinforce what I’ve been talking about on this website for almost nine months now - that it’s the military that drives technology. Van Damme and Lundgren are technogically enhanced soldiers in the movie, and while real-world troops aren’t exactly emotionless cyborgs yet, there is definitely a push to move them that way.

UPDATE: Oh yeah baby, Ninja Assassin is getting panned across the board - it’s got a 33 on Metacritic. Looks like I’ve got to go see it this weekend before it disappears.