WTF is up with those #UniversalSoldier sequels?

The first one came out in 1992 when Van Damme was kicking ass. It's an okay film. I'd see them selling copies of it all the time at the grocery store back in the day.

Six years later, they did 2 back-to-back DTV movies. I finally watched them. The second was okay at best, featuring Gary Busey as the main villain and a recast Luc Devereaux. The new guy did an okay job as the stoic bad-ass. The third one kinda sucked, though.

This was 1998 mind you, and these two films were chock-full of 90s alternative music to the point of being distracting and feeling out of place. My sister and I were laughing at their failed attempts to be cool.

Both sequels featured Burt Reynolds as the bad guy pulling the strings. They set it up for a TV show continuation, but at that point, nobody cared to follow up that thread, because while they were making these shit-shows, Van Damme was making his own proper sequel. That's why I find this whole mess so confusing.

So Van Damme comes back to put the series back on the right track. It's not exactly the same vibe as the original, but I still enjoy the movie. Audiences, however, did not, and the movie killed the franchise for another 10 years.

So Van Damme comes back to put the series back on the right track. Again. This time is more fitting because it's violent and also has Dolph again, even though it makes no sense how they can keep bringing him back after he gets obliterated, but whatever. It's a decent entry.

Then, they throw all that out the window and make Van Damme the bad guy for the next one, and Scott Adkins (usually a bad-ass) is constantly getting his ass kicked throughout the entire movie. And Dolph is back again when there's no plausible way for that to happen. So yeah, I'm not sure wtf is going on with this series.