A start something new

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2012)

I am neither disappointed nor completely impressed by this film. The film was short but it was very fast paced which made up for that. But overall I felt like I was watching a prologue to a possible 5th underworld film. Kind of like the opening intro in Underworld Evolution. I went with my brother and as we watched it he asked me with extreme sincerity "when was the movie going to start?" and I was feeling the same way.That doesn't make the film bad it just felt unfinished to me.
There was a lot of worry over Scott Speedman not being in the film. Quite frankly I didn't care either way. I don't care for Speedman's character, Michael. I didn't care about him in Underworld, I didn't care about him in Evolution, and I still didn't in Awakening. As a character he's a disappointment. In Underworld he just served as a plot device and a forced love interest for Selene.There was all this talk in Underworld about this ultimate creature, a hybrid (vampire and werewolf)and once we get it, its pushed off to the side like a piece of furniture. Michael was supposed to be this bad ass force to be reckoned with and yet Selene still overshadowed him. His character is so under developed that I cant bring myself to care about anything that happens to him.
I like Kate Beckinsale's Selene, absolutely love her character. Now I know I just stated that I don't care about Michael. Let me rephrase: I only care about Michael because Selene does. Even though Im not a strong supporter of their relationship, because I like Selene I wanted her to find him and get him back.
I also get the reason why Michael wasn't in this film because they were trying to establish the mother daughter relationship with Selene and Eve and for Michael to be there it would disregard that aspect. So Im cool with that. Selene also feels more emotional in this one as well which I liked. You get a sense of her realization of her connection with Eve and this new feeling of having to protect her at all costs.
Unfortunately we never get any explanation of how Eve came to be. Selene is captured one day and put in a cryogenic prison and 12 years later poof there's Eve. We're left with only speculation that Selene was pregnant at the time of her capture or Eve could possibly be the genetic splicing of Michael and Selene's DNA, a clone, an alien. hell,we don't know. But just go with it.
I hope if there's another installment that we will expand more on Eve's character. I would hate for her to get pushed off to the side like her daddy. She was such an awesome character and they could definitely start a whole to franchise with her.