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MovieDude
Where will you be?
Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2004 4:50 am
Posts: 11675
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 The most glorious Underworld: Awakening review ever http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/348727/aw ... underworldMANILA, Philippines — Six years since she was last seen onscreen for the “Underworld” films, the fearless, gun-toting vampire Selene [Kate Beckinsale] is back with a vengeance. Showing the same force and viciousness she’s exhibited in the first two movies in the series (Beckinsale is not in the third installment) where she single-handedly annihilates the Lycan race (werewolves), Selene takes on another war in “Underworld: Awakening,” one with the stakes higher than she could’ve ever imagined.
Dubbed as “Underworld 4,” “Awakening” is the answer to loyal fans that have patiently waited not only for Selene’s return but also for the first 3D installment in the franchise.
Fortunately, the film, as with the previous versions, delivered amazingly. Despite keeping with the franchise’s original theme of survival and the power struggle between the two warring species, “Awakening” directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, together with two-time “Underworld” director-turned-story writer Len Wiseman, managed to gloriously reinvent the premise by employing a twist involving a new character.
Awakening from more than a decade of being frozen to sleep—15 years past since she killed the vampire elder Marcus [Tony Curran] in the “Underworld Evolution”—Selene finds herself thrust in the middle of The Purge, a period when mankind discovered the existence of the Vampire and Lycan clans and launched an all-out war to eradicate both species.
Distraught and heartbroken upon recalling that her human-Lycan hybrid lover Michael [Scott Speedman] had been killed in the earlier genocide, Selene’s grief was overshadowed by shock as she discovered that she had given birth to his daughter, Eve [India Eisley]—presumably at the time she was deep in sleep-freeze, something that was, unfortunately, not clarified in the movie. From here, Selene finds herself in an unknown world in which her once proud coven had been hunted nearly to extinction, with a few survivors driven to hide underground.
As the fourth installment in the series, and the third starring Beckinsale, a backgrounder naturally would be necessary. Instead of going by the usual sporadic storytelling wherein the back story had to be pieced together by the audiences themselves, “Awakening” kept it short and simple. The movie’s creators were able cram all the significant events of the first two films in what seemed to be a single recollection by Selene. So, from the get-go, the audiences are not in the dark as to why Selene’s in a frozen glass container like an artifact from the ice age.
In another case of less-means-more, it’s a pleasant surprise to discover that the directors kept the floating 3D effects at a minimum. Make no mistake, the CGI effects were there in the form of ghastly blood spurts, magnified underwater explosions and the exaggerated strength of Selene whenever she throws and punches things. But it’s worth noting that “Awakening” reverted to its original claim to fame: hardcore fight sequences deftly carried out by Beckinsale and beautifully captured by the cinematographer. The film’s dark and brutal ambience befits the kind of world where Lycans and Vampires are likely to lurk.
Pacing wise, the film’s one-hour-20-minute run time almost seemed too fast, and not nearly enough. It didn’t keep the audience waiting long for the much-anticipated Lycan-Vampire and Vampire-human macabre encounters as there were action scene after action scene with almost every turn of the camera.
There was no dilly-dallying in terms of the dialogue either, as in the exchanges between Selene and other characters like closet vampire, David [Theo James] and his coward-of-a-father/new coven leader Thomas [Charles Dance]. The film, however, could’ve used a little more character backgrounder, particularly with David who just mysteriously came out of nowhere and started following Selene around the city and saving her life.
As for Selene, as soon as she dons her all-black ensemble of cat suit and army boots capped off with her frayed hair and captivating blue Vampire eyes, you’re likely to forget that Beckinsale has a sweet face in real life—the transformation blurs the fine line between the character Selene and Beckinsale, the actress. Her portrayal of a ruthless, agile and cunning yet graceful vampire was spot on, even as she broke and cut the necks and limbs of her enemies, all without dropping a sweat or batting an eyelash.
But, aside from Beckinsale, Eisley was equally superb as she portrayed the diabolical Vampire-Lycan hybrid daughter. There’s virtually nothing to hate about her. Though she only threw a few lines here and there, hers was the character that’s surely meant for greater things in the sequel.
If in “Evolution,” Selene was the mad lover who’s willing to go against her own kind for the one she loves, in “Awakening,” the brutal fighter in her is, in part, was more pronounced as she channeled her maternal instincts to protect her daughter. Ironic as it may sound—the killings and the quest for race annihilation aside—one of the film’s core values seems to be that parents are willing to go to great lengths to keep their children safe.
“Underworld: Awakening” is currently being screened in theaters nationwide.
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