Rating: **1/2
I congratulate the makers of Underworld:
Awakening for being able to make a mountain out of a molehill; from the
humble elevator pitch of “Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves” comes
one of the most densely packed mythologies of modern movie franchises covering
fantasy, action, sci-fi, horror, and borderline homages to the bondage
subculture. The films are a proverbial genre frappé, carried mostly on the
notion that fan boys would watch Kate Beckinsale reading the phone book if she
were dressed head to toe in skin tight leather and firing a big, damn gun.
In the series fourth outing, Underworld,
like action franchise cousin Mission: Impossible, proves that age ain’t
nothing but a number. The action scenes are brisk, well-executed and
enthralling, and Beckinsale proves that after a break of a couple years from
kicking any kind of butt that she can still stab, shoot, throw ninja stars and
set off explosives with the best of them. In other words if you don’t like loud
noises, monsters, death metal, and assorted on-screen carnage, this is not the
movie for you. Reversely, if you’re looking for a movie with coherent
storytelling, thoughtful characters and logical pacing, this is not the film
for you either.
A couple of years ago, there was a film
released called Ultraviolet about a future world where a virus turned
ordinary people into superhumans who were then hunted and killed by an evil
medical research company. In this uncertain time, one rebellious female warrior
refused to go down without a fight and struggled to protect a child that both
sides wanted dead, but who had the power to end the war. I only bring this up
because Underworld: Awakening follows almost exactly the same plotline.
Taking place in the not too distant future,
the secret war between vampires and Lycans (werewolves, remember) has become a
not-so secret war where the human race is trying to rid the world of both
immortal species. Captured by the obviously evil Antigen, vampire warrior
goddess Selene (Beckinsale) has been cryogenically frozen and studied for over
12 years, when the breakout of “Subject 2” causes the release of Selene as
well. Caught up in the new normal of the world, Selene seeks to get to the
bottom of Antigen’s true purpose, copes with the revelation of “Subject 2”
being her daughter Eve (India Eisley), and looks really, really good while
fighting some new bad guy every five minutes.
The sheer brazenness of these films, which
act as though coherent storytelling and practical character motivation is a
luxury of script-writing, is something I rather enjoy. For instance, when Eve
reveals that she’s really Selene’s previously unknown daughter it’s in the
midst of a car chase, the human detective investigating the resurgence in
supernatural activity seems to disappear from the plot for an hour, and
Michael, the werewolf hybrid played by Scott Speedman who was so central to the
plot of the first two films, appears only briefly and is played by a stand in.
Granted, Underworld isn’t a Tolkien-esque tome filled with back story
and detail, but I believe there is a minimum amount of work necessarily to at
least build your world in three dimensions.
The technical edge this film has over the
previous instalments is that it’s screening in 3-D and in IMAX. Now I didn’t
see it in IMAX, so maybe that makes a difference, but watching an Underworld film
in 3-D is an experience in squinting. It’s not good when you give up on the 3-D
glasses and watch the film without them about 50 per cent of the time. If you
have similar issues with 3-D, maybe only where the glasses for the action
scenes, but I will say that one sequence where heroes let off a grenade of
silver powder to take out a group of bad wolves looked amazing in 3-D. Seeing
the little specs of silver dance out from the screen was almost worth the 3-D
surcharge. Almost.
I also think that Swedish directors Måns Mårlind
and Björn Stein have a better idea of what an Underworld is supposed
to be, but that idea is putting emphasis on action and cool looking effects
over a substantive script. Still, it’s an improvement considering that past
films have had aspirations of Shakespeare and Puzo, but it also means you
hiring decent actors who get wasted. Stephen Rea as the head of Antigen looks
downright unsure what he’s doing on this film, and Canadian actor Kris
Holden-Ried, who plays a werewolf weekly on the hit Showcase series on Lost
Girl, deserved a, ahem, meatier part.
But despite everything I just wrote, most
of which being arm chair quarterbacking post game, I still walked out of Underworld
Awakening feeling moderately satisfied. It is what it is, Kate Beckinsale
in skin tight leather fighting monsters for an hour and a half. If only all
movies were this self-aware.
