Underworld: Awakening is the fourth film in the Underworld series, following the exploits of the vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) in an ongoing battle against the Lycans (or werewolves). For a bit of brief background, the first film, Underworld, followed Selene as she met Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), a human pursued by Lycan Lucian (Michael Sheen) due to his ancestry. She ultimately defied the traditions of her clan, falling in love with Michael as he became the first Hybrid. The second film, Underworld: Evolution, follows Selene and Michael on the move, pursued by an old vampire called Marcus who has recently become a hybrid himself, as he pursues them for something he believes Selene has, and Selene tries to find answers. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, was the third film in the series, an was a prequel, showing the history of the vampires and Lycans, and how they rose up out of servitude.
Awakening picks up where Evolution left off more or less. In the beginning 'backstory' bit of the film, we are told that humans have become aware of vampires and Lycans and are trying to eradicate them, so Michael and Selene try to flee the city, only to be ambushed by soldiers trying to capture them (due to Michael's unique status as hybrid), which they unfortunately successful in. When the film proper begins, we join Selene as she is mysteriously woken up from cryo-stasis and escapes the lab she was being held in, only to discover that she is now 12 years in the future. She embarks on a journey to find out what has happened and to find Michael, who she believes to be the other escapee from the lab and through whose eyes she can sometimes see through, but who turns out to be a young girl (India Eisley). Selene is joined in her struggles by brave vampire David (Theo James), son of the head of a local vampire coven who have become weak in the years Selene was gone, and human detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy), who rounds off the cast nicely.
Awakening is a great new installment in the series, full of action and drama that has made previous films good. It's been 6 years since we last saw Selene so it was a welcome sight, and it was good to see she was still a bad-ass vampire, although in this film we did see a bit more of her softer side, which was a nice change and showed good evolution of her character. The story for the most part was pretty good too, although some aspects seemed a little tenuous. The CGI was, as usual in the series, pretty top notch.
I did miss seeing Scott Speedman in this film, as although the character of Michael appeared in one or two scenes in the film, his faced was CGI-super-imposed onto a lookalike, and while that CGI was pretty good, I could tell quite obviously that it wasn't Speedman. It has been hinted however, that Speedman would return for a fifth film, so I will keep my fingers crossed. Setting this film so far apart from the others was nice in that it allowed several new characters to be introduced, such as vampire David, who I thought was a very nice addition to the Underworld series, and I hope that we see more of him. The detective was quite a nice addition as well, showing that humans aren't entirely corrupt or useless as was shown in previous films. The girl was quite a nice character and capturing her or protecting her served as pretty good drive for most of the character in the film, but I felt that the revelation of who she was was quite obvious (and so thankfully it wasn't drawn out), and yet it seemed like she might and should've been a bit less useless than she was in the film, although she did get a few kick-ass moments.
I did feel however that the story this time around was lacking a bit of depth that the previous films in the series had, and was a bit too much of a predictable storyline, although this might be due to the fact it is now the fourth installment in the franchise. There wasn't as much mystery and intrigue as there was in previous films, which might be due to all the original vampires etc. now being dead, and so there isn't really any old mythos to build upon.
Overall, I thought the film was a good new entry into the series, and all fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy it. I wouldn't say it was as good as the first film, but was still very good and I think there could still be at least 1 more film out of the series, which I personally am looking forward to. While it wouldn't win any awards for characters or story, the graphics were good and the story was pretty good. Overall, an immensely enjoyable film any fan of the series should watch, as should any fantasy fan or fan of vampire/werewolves stories (Twilight doesn't count), although it would be best to watch the previous films first to best understand this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment