About the same as the others, solid entertainment. It's really short, though.

Review: http://www.worldofkj.com/article.php?i=603

Was CGI Scott Speedman really cheaper than real Scott Speedman?

About the same as the others but without any sense of 'importance.' It's more concerned with keeping the franchise alive than anything else. In short, it's an 88 minute prequel to Underworld 5.

who are you people

Underworld: Awakening is an entertaining enough bit of nonsense.

Unfortunately, it doesn't lard on enough of the gothic soap that made the earlier entries in this series so b-movilicious.

Tragically, I had to see it in Dark-o-Vision™ - - I am truly saddened that some humans are still sucking up that crap.

Happily, it doesn't skimp on the Kate Beckinsale visuals in full-on mutilation celebration.

A serviceable entry in the franchise (fourth best!), U:A never achieves orbital velocity.


6 out of 5.

Good, but short. Seems more focused on setting up the next one than actually being a movie itself. The younger girl is pretty good. Heavy on the action and the parking lot battle is really well cut. B

Underworld movies ranked...

1. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans A-
2. Underworld B+
3. Underworld: Awakening B
4. Underworld: Evolution B

I think it's the best one yet. It has a lot of action and is just very entertaining. Hopefully the real Scott Speedman is back for the next one.

B

I think my ratings for the series were as follows:

UNDERWORLD - B/B-
UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION - C+
UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS - B-

You guys are on crack. This is fucking terrible.

Meh. I liked the big werewolf. And Tywin Lannester. Not much else.

Underworld - A-
Evolution - B+
Lycans - B-
Awakening - C-

This might be the best of the series yet (though the first two are very close behind). Although it feels like a mere set up to the fifth, it is still a lot of fun and the increased budget helps along the way. **1/2

Underworld: Awakening

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans soured my opinion of this franchise, but Underworld: Awakening goes some way to restoring my faith. I mean, it still doesn't reach the heights of the first two (which are vamp/werewolf action spectacles), and it is super flashy, and I don't care about the story anymore (it seems to be hybrids upon hybrids upon hybrids at this stage), but getting Kate Beckinsale back to round it off in style was a step in the right direction. The action is surprisingly superb! In particular the finale (the break-in to Antigen), which is non-stop, cool, and action-packed to the max. It is really nice to see the greatest action heroine ever back in action, and Kate Beckinsale is as gorgeous and as sexy and as flexible as ever! The first two Underworld installments have a nice, straightforward quality to them - vampires vs. lycans, and it is easily presented. Awakening, however, seems more messy. There are too many factions and too many cases of mixed DNA. I don't know the rules of the world anymore. Is the girl stronger than a lycan? What is she exactly? She is the offspring of a vampire and a vampire/lycan hybrid, so that makes her what exactly? And what are her abilities? Lots of things about this film I did not like. The entire set up (the purge, the cleansing, the 12-year gap, but also Theo James, and Charles Dance unable to speak with his long fangs in, lol) just didn't sit well with me. If it wasn't for that superb finale (and other sequences such as Selene's escape from Antigen at the beginning and the convent raid), I would lump this one in with the likes of that Underworld prequel with Rhona Mitra.

I guess I'm looking forward to any Underworld film that stars Beckinsale, and she looks to be in the fifth film, Blood Wars, too, and a sixth which is in development, which means she will have looked the same as Selene for the best part of two decades. At 43, she is still such a babe.

B

Underworld A
Underworld: Evolution A
Underworld: Awakening B
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans D+