We live in an era of filmmaking where Hollywood will put vampires in just about anything, and we’re only ever one bad studio exec decision from something like Mr. Dracula Goes to Washington. The vampire subgenre wasn’t always such a cliché – yes, Dracula films have been remade over and over – but very rarely do films add something interesting or new to the mix. When Underworld came along in 2003, it got in before the rush, and it had enough stylized violence to feel fresh. It wasn’t necessarily a great film, but there was a novelty in seeing vampires and lycans (werewolves) slug it out. By the first sequel, that novelty had eroded away thanks to a premise that really had nowhere to go, and it only got worse when the franchise went the route of a prequel, taking Kate Beckinsale out of hot, sleek leather and putting shirtless Michael Sheen in her place. However, if you thought that was the lowpoint of the Underworld saga, Underworld: Awakening will come as something of a revelation: it can always get worse.
After the events of the first two present-day films, the highly skilled vampire assassin Selene (Beckinsale) and her vampire-lycan hybrid beau Michael (Scott Speedman) are on the run from both the vampire and werewolf camps. To make matters worse, the human population has become aware of these two monstrous species and has pledged an all-out war against them both. In a run-in with the humans, Selene and Michael are separated in an explosion. Selene wakes up 12 years later in a lab only to find her only two allies are Eve (India Eisley), a little girl with a predicament similar to Michael’s, and one of the few vampires to have survived the purges since Selene’s coma. Eve quickly becomes the focus of both the humans and surviving lycans, and so Selene must help her survive if they’re ever to figure out what was going on in that lab.
No one expects Underworld: Awakening to reinvent the fantasy or horror action flick, but up until now the films had managed to have more substance than their Resident Evil counterparts. With Awakening, that caveat has all but disappeared, and that’s rather problematic. Say what you will about Paul W.S. Anderson for being the awful director that he is, but he has a better eye for action than Awakening Directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein. Each action scene lacks any sense of danger or immediacy and instead it all just feels like a film going through the motions to get to a twist about the lycans that really doesn’t even make sense. Of course, it’s just the last of many plotholes riddling this feckless effort. Characters pop in and out with no sense of rhythm or conceivable purpose. A detective introduced in the first 20 minutes is never seen again despite the script forcing us to sit through painful cop banter that’s no better than the worst clichés from some of the worst crime procedurals.
Then again, who expected an Underworld film to deliver on substance or character development? Didn’t we praise the original for being little more than a slick, stylish action film? We did, but once again Awakening fails to stack up to even that low of a bar.
Underworld: Awakening might be one of the worst uses of 3D cinema to date. For most of the film, you could watch with your glasses off and there’s almost no perceivable difference – the 3D is that poorly executed so that it’s hardly noticeable. It adds little to nothing in terms of depth and even the action sequences seem to make no use of the added dimension. Usually 3D is an added level of spectacle, even if post-converted, but in this case, it’s as if they only bothered making about 10 minutes of the film in 3D. The rest looks like a 2D film through and through, and the fact that you can take your glasses off and have minimal blurring (and in some cases none at all) speaks volumes about the added $4 on the ticket price being a gimmick to boost box office for a film that has no redeeming qualities. If an Underworld film can’t even produce a few gripping action sequences or some flashy swordplay, then what good is it?
"Underworld: Awakening" opens February 20, 2012 and is rated R. Action, Fantasy, Horror. Directed by Bjorn Stein, Mans Marlind. Written by Len Wiseman. Starring India Eisley, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Ealy, Stephen Rea, Theo James.
