Underworld: The Awakening
So, Underworld - part something or other. Actually, it’s part 4, but somehow I can’t shake the impression that this franchise has been around for ages. I think those movies are a good indication of the state Hollywood is in. How sad is it that a mediocre movie sees three sequels? Even with an absolutely breathtaking movie I’d ask myself after part three: “Is that really necessary?” Because usually, it’s isn’t. For examples, see Lethal Weapon IV, or these awful CGI adventures that are named Episode 1, 2 and 3.
Anyway. For part 4 we’re back in the somewhat present. From the cars and the computers, I’d say we’re somewhere in the 80′s - I’m just not sure why we are in the 80′s. I never got the impression that part 1 was set in the past. But I digress. We are back in the somewhat present and Selene has been deep-frozen for some ultimately evil purpose. She is eventually freed and goes straight into Must-Find-Michael-Mode (nobody likes him, I have no idea why they keep bringing him up). That has always been boring, but luckily she is quickly distracted by the fact that she has a daughter. Surprise! After that the movie consists of a series of ridiculous action scenes in which Selene has to save her daughter from the evil werewolves. While doing that she is shooting from the gun with two thousand bullets and is throwing the an endless supply of hand grenades which she is obviously hiding away in the spacious pockets of her S/M leather outfit *sarcasm*. There is also a good-looking vampire sidekick (Theo James), who is shamelessly underused.
So, Selene finds her daughter and you’d expect that there’d be at least some twitch in her impressionless face. There isn’t, though. In the end, there’s not much interaction between the two. The daughter (if she has a name, I didn’t catch it) is nothing more than a plot device anyway, because we need something to drive all the shooting and running around. Because that’s what this movie is about: Things blowing up, werewolves looking like the CGI guys fell asleep on the job, and Kate Beckinsale showing off her (admittedly) hot body. In 3D.
And as if all that weren’t enough: This movie has an open end, which is why we can all sit tight and wait for part 5. For my thoughts on that, please refer to the beginning of this post.
Originally published at Unspoken. Please leave any comments there.