Film Review

Title: Underworld: Awakening

Directed By Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein

Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy, Theo James, India Eisley

Studio: Sony/Screen Gems

Release Date: January 20, 2012

Running Time: 88 Minutes

Reviewed By Adam A. Donaldson

I congratulate the makers of Underworld: Awakening for being able to make a mountain out of a molehill; from the humble elevator pitch of “Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves” comes one of the most densely packed mythologies of modern movie franchises covering fantasy, action, sci-fi, horror, and borderline homages to the bondage subculture. The films are a proverbial genre frappé, carried mostly on the notion that fan boys would watch Kate Beckinsale reading the phone book if she were dressed head to toe in skin tight leather and firing a big, damn gun.

In the series fourth outing, Underworld, like action franchise cousin Mission: Impossible, proves that age ain’t nothing but a number. The action scenes are brisk, well-executed and enthralling, and Beckinsale proves that after a break of a couple years from kicking any kind of butt that she can still stab, shoot, throw ninja stars and set off explosives with the best of them. In other words if you don’t like loud noises, monsters, death metal, and assorted on-screen carnage, this is not the movie for you. Reversely, if you’re looking for a movie with coherent storytelling, thoughtful characters and logical pacing, this is not the film for you either.

A couple of years ago, there was a film released called Ultraviolet about a future world where a virus turned ordinary people into superhumans who were then hunted and killed by an evil medical research company. In this uncertain time, one rebellious female warrior refused to go down without a fight and struggled to protect a child that both sides wanted dead, but who had the power to end the war. I only bring this up because Underworld: Awakening follows almost exactly the same plotline.

Taking place in the not too distant future, the secret war between vampires and Lycans (werewolves, remember) has become a not-so secret war where the human race is trying to rid the world of both immortal species. Captured by the obviously evil Antigen, vampire warrior goddess Selene (Beckinsale) has been cryogenically frozen and studied for over 12 years, when the breakout of “Subject 2” causes the release of Selene as well. Caught up in the new normal of the world, Selene seeks to get to the bottom of Antigen’s true purpose, copes with the revelation of “Subject 2” being her daughter Eve (India Eisley), and looks really, really good while fighting some new bad guy every five minutes.

The sheer brazenness of these films, which act as though coherent storytelling and practical character motivation is a luxury of script-writing, is something I rather enjoy. For instance, when Eve reveals that she’s really Selene’s previously unknown daughter it’s in the midst of a car chase, the human detective investigating the resurgence in supernatural activity seems to disappear from the plot for an hour, and Michael, the werewolf hybrid played by Scott Speedman who was so central to the plot of the first two films, appears only briefly and is played by a stand in. Granted, Underworld isn’t a Tolkien-esque tome filled with back story and detail, but I believe there is a minimum amount of work necessarily to at least build your world in three dimensions.

The technical edge this film has over the previous instalments is that it’s screening in 3-D and in IMAX. Now I didn’t see it in IMAX, so maybe that makes a difference, but watching an Underworld film in 3-D is an experience in squinting. It’s not good when you give up on the 3-D glasses and watch the film without them about 50 per cent of the time. If you have similar issues with 3-D, maybe only where the glasses for the action scenes, but I will say that one sequence where heroes let off a grenade of silver powder to take out a group of bad wolves looked amazing in 3-D. Seeing the little specs of silver dance out from the screen was almost worth the 3-D surcharge. Almost.

I also think that Swedish directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein have a better idea of what an Underworld is supposed to be, but that idea is putting emphasis on action and cool looking effects over a substantive script. Still, it’s an improvement considering that past films have had aspirations of Shakespeare and Puzo, but it also means you hiring decent actors who get wasted. Stephen Rea as the head of Antigen looks downright unsure what he’s doing on this film, and Canadian actor Kris Holden-Ried, who plays a werewolf weekly on the hit Showcase series on Lost Girl, deserved a, ahem, meatier part.

But despite everything I just wrote, most of which being arm chair quarterbacking post game, I still walked out of Underworld Awakening feeling moderately satisfied. It is what it is, Kate Beckinsale in skin tight leather fighting monsters for an hour and a half. If only all movies were this self-aware.

Written by :

Adam