Stylish & cool but empty & soulless.

Rating: 5/10 (4 March 2012)

Underworld: Awakening starts as the existence of Vampires & Lycans living amongst humanity has been exposed, the authorities respond by carrying out a mass purge in order to wipe out both the Vampire & Lycan species. Vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) & her hybrid lover Michael Corvin attempt to escape the mass execution & meet at a dock but both are shot & fall into the water, Selene wakes up twelve years later in the labs of a company called Antigen after being placed in cryogenic suspension. Selene manages to escape Antigen & meets another Vampire named David (Theo James) & a young hybrid girl named Eve (India Eisley) who are all attacked by Lycans but manage to reach the relative safety of a secret community of Vampires hiding on the outskirts of the city, Selene quickly realises that Eve is her daughter & that she is crucial to genetic Lycan experiments that will give them invulnerability & will stop at nothing to get her back. Selene must fight the Lycan threat, save Eve, herself & humanity from the vicious Lycans...
Directed by the Sweedish duo of Måns Mårlind & Björn Stein this is the fourth film in the franchise that started with Underworld (2003) & was followed by the direct sequel Underworld: Evolution (2006) which happens to be my favourite Underworld film (hey, I have it on Blu-ray...) after which came Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) which was a prequel & didn't feature Kate Beckinsale as Selene. For Underworld: Awakening the script jumps back to contemporary times in a modern almost futuristic city & Kate Beckinsale returns as the sexy rubber clad Vampire Selene, I must admit to liking the Underworld series as each film is visually good with some good action & gore set-pieces & although the mythology isn't exactly deep a world of Vampires & Werewolf monsters fighting each other provides ample opportunity for various cool action scenes, huge monsters, plenty of violence & gore &, of course, Kate Beckinsale in tight black PVC & rubber kicking ass. Hey, what can I say? I am easily pleased. The major disappointment about Underworld: Awakening is the lack of any substantial story on which to hang the set-pieces & action, the script is really simplistic with none of the character's standing out or being developed beyond broad clichés (character's who want to fight, character's who want don't, an evil scientist) & the plot feels a little bit choppy with the beginning in particular feeling like it could have been expanded & explained a little better. The plot about genetic experiments & Selene having to save her daughter is standard fantasy film stuff & even the concept of the Vampire & Lycan war exposed to humanity is nothing special or that original although I suppose it will take the series in a different direction if any further sequels materialize. Underwolrd: Awakenings is also very short, if you ignore the closing credits (which last for ten minutes!) then the films runs for a mere 75 minutes, I think the film could have used an extra five or ten minutes worth of character & plot development to flesh things out a little actually so it doesn't quite feels as soulless as it does & we then might have actually cared about the people here & what was going on a bit more. The twist at the end & the revelation of what the evil Lycans are trying to do is strictly routine & raises minimal interest & things are predictably left open ended to facilitate a further sequel.
Filmed & released in 3-D which is a trend doing the rounds in Hollywood at the moment I cannot comment on this version, I have eye problems that prevent me from seeing films in 3-D so I don't know how it looks but even I could see several scenes shot in a way with 3-D in mind. Visually I love the way Underworld: Awakening looks, it's dark grey & blue colours & it's modern yet Gothic looking sets that are impressive to look at & add lots of character to the film. The fight scenes are good, there's plenty of slow motion, shoot-outs, fights, all sorts of flips & somersault's while the CGI computer effects are also generally very good. There's a really good scene in which Selene, David & Eve are trying to escape some Lycans while driving a van & the Lycans chase them through the city traffic. There's lots of violence & gore on show, from slit throats to broken arms to ripped-out throats to exploding Werewolves to slashed wrists & chopped off heads. If your looking for blood then Underworld: Awakening delivers.
With a supposed budget of about $70,000,000 this was filmed in British Columbia in Canada, the production values are great & the film is visually impressive even if it does feel empty in terms of it's story. The acting is alright, British names such as Stephen Rea & Charles Dance provide decent support although it's the sexy Beckinsale in tight black rubber that steals the show.
Underworld: Awakening carries on the visual look of the series & sees the return of Selene but it feels empty with the minimum of story to hold the action & gore together. I liked it enough & I would watch it again for the visuals, the action & the gore but it has no depth.