When it was first conceived, it was surprisingly an original idea to come out of Hollywood that had a decent story behind it and good actors – Kate Beckinsale, Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy to name the leads. As I said, at the core of the story is a “death dealer” (Beckinsale) who’s sole job is to kick ass and not bother with asking questions. Selene, as she is called, moves through the movie and kicks ass. She even has some dialog. I think, however, that the whole point of the Underworld movie (at least with the first one) was to put Kate Beckinsale into the tightest black leather outfit (not that there’s anything wrong with that, either).
But really, if you’re into hyper violence and watching Vampires and Lycans get their guts splattered across a room, then by all means, this is the movie series for you. However, if you’re used to seeing pretty boy Vampires and Werewolves with their shirts off and looking sparkly, definitely don’t worry about this series because not only are the pretty boys only on screen for a brief moment or two, they also have a tendency to be killed. Except for Kate Beckinsale, of course. As the lead in the movie, not only is she contractually obliged to be pretty, but also she can’t die.
Getting back to the movie I saw, though. Awakening did its job. It was a standard Vampire vs. Lycan movie (is there such a thing?). But this one is different. Apparently, the human race at large has discovered the Vampires and the Lycans and have begun to hunt them down like the “vermin” they are. I suppose that in this movie world, the human race has decided that Vampires and Lycans pose more of threat to the world than nuclear missiles and terrorists – or even Communism. So the world chooses to stop fighting each other and go after the “real” menace – non human beings.
What’s really nice about this film is that it does a good job of setting up the current story by recapping the previous three movies in a nutshell. It even opens with a telling tale of Selene trying to escape with her lover, the only “hybrid” Lycan/Vampire (he showed up in Underworld 2). However, the bad guys (or are they good guys?) appear and blow the place to bits, causing Selene and her lover to be captured. Of course, Selene doesn’t realize that until she wakes up and starts to see images through another person’s eyes. She assumes that it is her lover, Michael that she is seeing until it turns out to be a little girl.
Now, I’m not going to think about the logic of all of this because it might hurt your brain and mine if I do, but okay, I get it. Selene has to protect the little girl from the Lycans who are still around and trying to work on some serious steroids in order to eliminate the Vampires altogether. I won’t go into more specifics than that, but let’s just say that I was a little surprised by some of the story as it unfolded.
From a story point of view, it was alright. There was enough action (bullets or people flying about) that carried the movie between the times when the dialogue had to unfortunately interrupt. There were characters introduced briefly that weren’t even dealt with later in the movie, which makes me wonder if the filmmakers were simply trying to fulfill a quota on actors.
Cinematography wise, it seemed as gritty as the first couple of films, allowing for a hint of believability in some of the action as well as some of the character’s lives as they had been living over a period of time. The action sequences were well done and I did find that I did jump once during the film when a particular bad guy happened to show up, but the rest was quite predictable. But there’s nothing wrong with that, either.
Overall, I would suggest seeing at least the first movie in the series and determine your level of interest from there. For me, it was fun to see a movie that I didn’t have to do too much thinking while watching. For some of you, this might not be the movie for you. Or, if you just feel like watching Vampires and Lycans (werewolves) get beat up and blown to bits because you don’t care about what Twilight has done for their image, then so be it. See the film. Either way, it’s a way to spend ninety minutes in a quiet theater.
Until next time.
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