Mind numbingly boring.

Rating: 2/10 (1 August 2012)

Exciting is a word i would attribute to the time spent watching paint dry, that is if the alternative was being told i'd have to sit through Underworld: Awakening again. After opting out of the third installment of the Underworld series, Kate Beckinsale returns as ice cool PVC clad vampire Seline in this tired fourth outing. In case you missed the previous Underworld films, (you really didn't miss anything) we get a recap introduction designed to bring you up to speed, and then without further ado it's headlong into the typically dingy looking, mind numbing action. By now anyone who's followed Underworld, knows just how adept Seline is at stylishly offing bad guys. From power sliding while simultaneously firing two automatic handguns, to gravity defying gymnastics it's all gotten very old, very fast. What's designed to be exciting is 'by the numbers' boring, as the almost non existent script meanders from witless exposition to the merest of character development. Seasoned actors Charles Dance and Stephen Rea show up to try and inject some heft, but nothing detracts from just how dull it all is. Beckinsale looks great, and as always she's suitably nimble but it's nowhere near enough to hang a film on, which is essentially what the producers are trying to achieve. With a budget of $70m and a global take of $160m, this is a series that seems to endure despite being as thin as the latex wrapped around it's protagonists tiny frame. With that in mind, more sequels seem inevitable. Where's that drying paint again?