Excellent addition to the series

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2012)

Underworld: Awakening is a fast-paced action movie, with excellent performances from all the cast. Reminiscent of Underworld: Evolution in its unrelenting pace, it actually feels like a significantly more cohesive effort than that. I liked U:E, but at times it felt too much like a progression of set-pieces rather than a continuous narrative. Fortunately, the adroit pacing, strong plot and convincing performances here neatly avert any such misgivings with U:A.
Beckinsale is excellent again, taking the character of Selene forward and establishing a new battleground for our favourite death-dealer, Stephen Rea makes a convincingly sinister evil mastermind, Michael Ealy turns in a good solid performance, Kris Holden-Ried's Quint is appropriately savage while India Eisley's debut in the series promises great things should it continue and should she remain involved in it (which I hope she does). A nice cameo from Charles Dance (I've always suspected that he wasn't entirely human...) rounds things out nicely. Frankly, I'm only knocking a point off for it being too short, and if that's the worst I can say of a movie, then they're doing something right...