Underworld: Awakening
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rae, Theo James, India Eisley
Directors: Man Marling, Bjorn Stein
Rating: 2/5
It's everywhere. TV, films, books. Heck, even Facebook games have allowed themselves to become obsessed about the occult's oldest duel. Vampires vs werewolves.
For many, the cause of the outbreak came in the form of 2003's Underworld, where Kate Beckinsale took it upon herself to rid the world of the Lycan menace through a combination of constant gunfire and very tight trousers. Now, after a the smorgasbord of imitators can Underworld reclaim its sanguine thrown?
Underworld: Awakening finally has humanity realising the existence of vamprire and werewolves. During a 'purge', powerful vampire warrior and series protagonist Selene, gets herself captured, only to awake from a frozen slumber 12 years later.
Not only has the world changed completely, but she now has a daughter she never knew about to worry about. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) now has to protect her offspring from a shady science company and fight back against the extinction of the vampire race.
Underworld: Awakening is very much more of the same in the Underworld franchise. Kate Beckinsale will fire handguns at giant werewolves while wearing a rather uncomfortable looking leather cat suit/corset ensemble and looking moody.
The action is defiantly the film's high point. Stylishly shot with nicely over-complicated and brutal choreography, Underworld: Awakening gives fans of werewolf/people/vampire murder more than a little bang for their buck. Throw in some brilliantly crazy set-pieces and you've got yourself some fun frolics with automatics.
The trouble is that the film never matches the ridiculous action in terms of tone, remaining deadly serious throughout. The complete dearth of humour may help the scowl-per-minute ratio, but hold the films back from reaching their pulpy potential.
It would help if the script wasn't so incredibly wooden too. Most of the characters speak only in clichés, their actors clearly struggling with a script that barely even tries at such concepts as character development and colour. That would just get in the way of the gun-play.
At least it knows when to stop, with an enjoyably swift running time, never letting itself get too bogged down in the series' quagmire of lore, something that blighted the previous sequels to no end.
While silly, gory and fun action may go so far, it can only lift Underworld: Awakening to the heady heights of banal.
Underworld: Awakening is out now
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in Kate Beckinsale