Gets more right than it does wrong!

Rating: 7/10 (18 February 2012)

As an action film the original Underworld was good but - very much in the shadow of the Matrix up until Underworld:Evolution.
The second picks up moments after the original, viewing both one night after another greatly improves the overall feel of the movies. The third, Rise of the Lycans was very clever stepping backwards into the lore & allows the motivations of characters such as Viktor to shine. Again once you have seen the third film, the first two seem correctly paced.
Awakening is different ..
The best way I can describe it is that Selene is like the T-1000 from Terminator 2 - relentless in tracking down the important child.
She is way cooler in this film, the taking down of enemies & smooth catlike landings from above show what the Deathdealer is capable of. At no point did I feel that she was being "bigged up" - the character was akin to say Ripley or Sarah Connor post asylum escape in the fact that the woman kicked ass!
I wish that the mother in her had emerged a little more although she explains this herself quite well so I can forgive them that.
I would watch it again quite happily but I feel that it will find its place properly once the next chapter kicks in. If you are an Underworld fan (which the box office takings show many people are) then it will do very nicely. It's almost like TV episodes where sometimes the big events need eps 1-4 to get to the meat of the story before they can unfold in chapter 5. Looking back you have you favourite episodes but they wouldn't have been possible without the others. Evolution is still my favourite as it is a chase movie at heart but is defo the 2nd act to Underworld, Rise of the Lycans you can watch anytime as the Sonja love story is pretty self contained.
Awakening is a good little action flick - it is kinda the Alien: Resurrection of the franchise but better. It continues the story well, I don't feel that it has hurt the series & it will be interesting to see where it goes next. The Blade series failed 20 mins before the end of the 1st movie & the only thing they could do in the franchise was keep killing Whistler to give Blade something to do. Selene at least continues to grow etc.
Even if the lovely Kate didn't return for the next one the third film shows that the story can follow other characters in the series. The daughter could pick up the mantle if required & you wouldn't feel cheated.