• Movies

by All4Play on 01.25.12

Saying that Underworld: Awakening is the best Underworld movie of the entire series really doesn’t say much. Considering how bland the previous three films in the series have been, it really wasn’t that hard for Awakening to do that either. Had the first film been as interesting as Awakening was, maybe… maybe the series could have developed into something better than what it is. And maybe Awakening would not have devolved into a mess of a story as it did either. In any case, it is hard to really understand why this series has continued. At least those are my thoughts.

To start off, let me state the good things about the movie that stick out in my mind. First and foremost, Kate Beckinsale returns to the series as the former Death Dealer, Selene. Not to take away anything from Rhona Mitra, because I think she is a very beautiful woman and I have had a crush on her ever since her days as a Lara Croft model, but there is no substituting for Kate Beckinsale. No one can pull off that full leather look like Beckinsale does as Selene. Having Beckinsale back in the series lends a bit more credibility to the films fans who have stuck with the series from the start. 

The other thing to point out is that the series has finally embraced the fact that it is a horror style story by including a bit more violence and a lot more gore. For the first time in the series, when scenes that should be bloody are extremely bloody it gives the whole Vampire/Lycan war a true sense of being a supernatural war. That is really where Awakening stands out from its predecessors. Like I said, had the previous films embraced this route as well, it might have made for a better series.

Aside from those two points, however, Underworld: Awakening is a mess. The story, for as interesting as it starts out, quickly turns into a jumbled mess that left me with a bit of a headache trying to figure out all the plot holes and twist. Amazingly enough, my first guess at what happened in the film from the beginning was spot on which goes to show how little creativity was put into the whole surprise factor in the film. And being that this film is nearly 9 years more advanced than the first Underworld film, why did the effects in the first film look better than here? That has been baffling me to no end since watching this film.

I could go on a bit more telling you why I did not like Underworld: Awakening. But I would start to sound repetitive as my complaints with the story mirror how I feel about other aspects in Awakening. Suffice to say, I could have done without having watched this movie. Desperately, as a somewhat reluctant fan of the series, I have grasped onto each new trailer for each film hoping that it would finally justify me liking the series. But each time I have been let down by more and more miscues in the series, and Underworld: Awakening is no different. Someone should unleash a Death Dealer on this series and just put it, and the audience, out of their misery.