TITLE: Underworld: Awakening
STARRING: Kate Beckinsale, Sandrine Holt, Theo James, Michael Ealy, India Eisley
DIRECTOR: Måns Mårlind & Björn Stein
STUDIO: Lakeshore Entertainment, Sketch Films, Screen Gems
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 88 min
RELEASED: January 20, 2012

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

With the Underworld films, it’s important to not really think too much into it. While the back story itself — heavily infused with a centuries-long war between the Vampire and the werewolf-like Lycan clans — actually makes sense and doesn’t really allow itself to get stuck into laborious debates about the whole logic of it all, it’s not really ever presented in the films as the main draw.

That would be more or less reserved for what you know everyone comes to these movies to see: guns, explosions, and Kate Beckinsale running around in that outfit of hers, kicking all sorts of supernatural ass. Beckinsale returns as the Death Dealer Vampire Selene in the fourth installment — her third go-round as the character — of the Underworld franchise.

Awakening picks up six months after the events of Underworld: Evolution, with Selene and the others having found themselves in a kill-or-be-killed battle with the humans, who have finally learned of the existence of vampires and werewolves. Naturally, the humans view the Lycans and Vampires as humans infected with a virus, and are looking to pretty much eradicate all of the infected, so as to not risk another breakout. The whole introduction to the chaos is a bit rushed, and could have benefited from expanding in its own right, but instead, Selene and Michael Corvin — the first Vampire/Lycan hybrid — are captured.

The film then flashes forward 12 years later, with Selene waking up from a cryogenic suspension chamber in a medical research facility. From here on out, it follows her search for Michael, who she thinks was in the other chamber with her. She ends up finding out that the other test subject was Eve, a child that the scientists created while Selene was frozen using her and Michael’s DNA. The rest of the film follows a bit of a conspiracy theory trail to find out why the Lycans are thriving and growing in numbers despite the particularly thorough purge over a decade ago.

From a visual standpoint, Underworld: Awakening is on par with past entries in the series, with its dark, gothic tone intact, and the Lycans looking as gruesome as ever. But I must admit how much better 3D films such as this look when they’re actually filmed with 3D cameras. Despite how much I hate the format’s obvious attempts to try and raise ticket prices even more, when it’s done well, it’s done well, and credit must be given. Although there’s quite a few in your face gags throughout, the subtle bits that added to the atmosphere of the film were pretty well done. One example in particular was the way a certain type of gas filled the room during a shootout between Selene and the Lycans.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t all that much holding the story together, and it’s hard to not look at it without a little bit of the old been there, done that. Granted, I’d take this over the teen romance drama of the Twilight films any day, but once you strip away all the flash and action, there really isn’t that much in terms of cohesive plot. The story serves more of a purpose to string along each fight, either between Selene and humans, or her and the Lycans, with not much of a true resolution. Well, that and overwrought slow motion shots of Beckinsale walking all pouty and “bad ass” in front of the camera.

Worst of all, Awakening ends with a bit of a lead-in for an obvious sequel, should they choose to go that route. Nothing about the film is terrible; it’s just that Awakening is going through the motions already laid out in previous installments. Ultimately, I would have rather seen what happened that lead to the humans learning of their existence rather than another fight between the clans. Something like that could have lead to a very interesting team up between the two. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, isn’t it?

RATING: 6/10

Front page image and interior stills from collider.com.