Contributed Photo
As Subject 2, played by teen India Eisley, says right before she rips open a man’s throat with her bare hands: “Don’t fight it; it will only make it worse.”
This is the prevailing sentiment throughout the fourth installment of the Underworld franchise. If you are looking for grand storytelling, plot development or an emotional connection with the characters, then this is not the movie you’re looking for.
However, if you want a beautiful bloodbath of the highest order, you’ve come to the right place.
In “Underworld: Awakening,” the vampires and the werewolves are once again at war, the guns reload themselves, and Kate Beckinsale looks like a sex goddess in her black latex bodysuit.
The only real change from the other three movies is that the human world now knows of the existence of both these immortal factions and is trying to annihilate them by any means possible.
The film begins with Kate Beckinsale’s character Selene, who is set free from a cryofreeze tank after 12 years of imprisonment.
After a few deep breathes to get the frost out of her lungs, Selene starts doing what she does best: killing people. From there, what constitutes for a plot advances in a tsunami of gunfire as Selene takes revenge against her would-be captors.
The visual barrage that accompanies Beckinsale’s rampage leaves little room for storytelling in this chapter of the saga. The character development and search for self identity that initially drew viewers to the series has been cut in favor of grandiose 3-D action sequences that range from sublime to ridiculous. These slow-mo standoffs glue you to the screen at first but quickly become redundant as the film presses on.
What “Awakening” lacks in dialogue and narrative, it attempts to make up for with 88 minutes of surrealist fight scenes and Kate Beckinsale’s sex appeal. Firefights can only do so much, though, causing “Awakening” to fall far short of the mark set by its predecessors.
The choreography in these battle royals is top notch, but that does not do enough to disguise the fact that the writers were absent during the production process.
This disregard for any intellectual substance makes “Underworld: Awakening” just another un-extraordinary sequel.
Leave a Reply