Watch | Underworld: Awakening

image from primaryignition

Taking advantage of a much appreciated non working holiday (for them, at least), Marvin, Dennis, Tina, Allan and I watched Underworld: Awakening earlier today.

The latest installment in Len Wiseman‘s vampire and lycan film series, Underworld: Awakening begins with the discovery of the supernatural beings and the human’s reaction to that discovery.  A purge takes place, which nearly wipes out the population of the immortal creatures.  After a botched attempt to escape the purge with Michael Corvin, Selene is captured and wakes up from a frozen state twelve years later.  She suddenly finds herself in a new world, with no idea of what happened to Michael.  She also contends with the fact that she has a teenage daughter, Eve, who is also a vampire-lycan hybrid.

This is the first movie review that I wrote that didn’t earn the Must-Watch label in my blog.  I normally do not set expectations when watching movies, especially if I know that it was meant to be a popcorn film.  And I didn’t set any when we decided to watch this film, even if I did enjoy its predecessors Underworld, Underworld: Evolution and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

I shudder to think how I would feel if I actually did set expectations.

The Underworld series of films have a moderate following, even if it does not generate as much buzz as other vampire series produced in the last few years.  It won’t win any awards or critical acclaim, but I enjoyed it.  While the series featured the basic and well-known vampire versus lycan mythology, it showed an interesting take on how the war was continued to the present day.  Unfortunately, it would seem that filming a new installment was a misstep, even unnecessary.

While considered to be the next chapter in the series, Underworld: Awakening felt anything but.  The overall summary of the film promised something epic, now that humans have discovered the existence of the vampires and lycans.  While I felt less enthusiasm at the idea of Selene and Michael Corvin having a daughter, I was still interested to find out how that fit in the whole picture.  The end result, unfortunately, turned out to be a disjointed storyline that felt half-baked and seemed to only be glued together by the action scenes.  The movie lacked resolution, explanation and sense in many parts.

And the acting didn’t help.  Kate Beckinsale have always played the character as one who didn’t express much emotion.  Here, she was just wooden and seemed to struggle with how to show the occasional emotional breakdown, which she expressed with quivering lips and sometimes teary eyes that didn’t quite evoke the empathy it should have.  While the series usually had a large cast, it’s actually known for only having a few major characters, which is the same formula they used in Underworld: Awakening.  But unlike it’s predecessors, this film featured uninteresting supporting characters.  And the villains were just bland.  I suddenly missed Bill Nighy‘s Viktor and  Michael Sheen‘s Lucian. 

In a way, Underworld: Awakening isn’t all bad, especially if you like action films.  The action sequences were pretty good and I’m always appreciative when brain matter is involved in the aftermath of a well placed blow.  And there was a lot of brain matter, which kept me happy for some portions of the film.  Yet, I still have to say that even if I enjoyed the gratuitous violence, there was little else that kept me interested in a good way.

I just wish they could have done a better job with the rest of the film.  

Here are the comments, random thoughts and burning questions that cropped up when we were watching Underworld: Awakening.  I can’t take credit for all of them.

• So… Scott Speedman‘s stand in.  Not effective at all. 
• If they kept Eve separated from Selene for twelve years and was pretty much mostly raised by the obviously non-British Lida (Sandrine Holt)… Why does Eve speak in an English accent?  Is it supposed to highlight the fact that she’s Selene’s daughter?  Accent isn’t part of our genetic makeup and inherited, even if you are a vampire-lycan hybrid. And if it was, remember that her father’s American.
• Why do vampires need flashlight attachments on their guns?  Aren’t they supposed to have inherent night vision?  
• If there is a vampire, lycan, alien or zombie invasion in the future, I want Selene’s handguns.  They only ran out of bullets once in the film.  Heck, it had enough bullets to weaken the floor of an elevator on its way to crash landing on top of her head.  

image from bloodydisgusting

• Did they run out of special effects and makeup budget (part 1)?  Why did Eve’s skin turn grey and lips turn black every time she transformed into her vampire-lycan hybrid form?  Michael Corvin turned all black, and even shiny at times, when he transformed.  The girl didn’t look like she was one of the most powerful beings that existed.  She looked like she was possessed and required the services of an exorcist.
• Did they run out of special effects and makeup budget (part 2)? Why did one of the major lycans in the storyline not have that much fur when he was part of a climax fight?  I wasn’t expecting fluffy, but I was definitely looking out for hairy.  Which didn’t happen.  And a lycan with fur volume problems just looks weird.  And scraggly.
• Why did Detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy) decide to help Selene just like that?  Even with a sob story, you still don’t empathize so readily with a vampire who points a gun to your head at your first meeting.  Sure, she’s the movie’s hero, but shouldn’t you be more suspicious, detective?

image from cheezburger

• I would have appreciated the Lycan Juggernaut more if he stayed in that state throughout the entire movie.  I was completely distracted by the fact that when Quint Lane (Kristen Holden-Reid) was in human form, he looked like Chris Martin from Coldplay. It’s not Kristen Holden-Reid’s fault, of course.  By the time he made an appearance in the film, I was prone to distraction by anything that was remotely interesting or novel, including rock star lookalikes.
• Why was the Lycan Juggernaut only capable of flicking and swiping  Selene during their encounters?  Was it so they could show a lot of seemingly painful crashing against the wall or car moments that would challenge Beckinsale’s acting chops?  Seriously, the damn thing could have easily grabbed her and chomped her head off.
• Biggest lesson learned from the movie:  If a Lycan Juggernaut is chasing after you, run for the door.  Then turn around. And just watch it get stumped by a small entryway, pounding on walls and everything.  There is hope for survival even for regular sized people or supernatural beings after all.

After all that, I guess all I can say is…

As long as you don’t have much expectations and wouldn’t mind watching a popcorn movie just for the action sequences or the sight of Kate Beckinsale in patent leather, then….

I hope you enjoy viewing it.