Underworld Awakening

So this film is shockingly clever….well in terms of plot, it isn’t, or narrative or characters. But the main thing that’s so clever about it is that it was marketed as the franchise of the previous two films shamelessly ripping off concepts from films like Resident Evil and Alien.

So I was expecting to watch this with an air of disappointment, as I witnessed the tarnishing of the two previous films (which I quite enjoyed) by endless clichés and bad guys who all end up turning into the same friggin’ monster.

To spoil it slightly, most of the trailers for this film are loaded with red herrings, which is a most welcome aspect of the promotion of any film. This means that the more important twists and turns actually come with some surprise attached to them.

But anyway; the Plot. After Vampires and Werewolves are exposed to the world, the human race begins a fear driven extermination of both species, under the direction of Dr. Jacob Lane. This doctor captures series protagonist Selene and cyro-freezes for twelve years, until she’s released, by a scary-looking little girl with the same accent as her.

Kidnapped by Evil Corporation or waking up from an awesome night out?

Now this is all pretty standard stuff – the years in cryo-freeze is how Aliens and Alien III begin, the concept of a small English girl milling about in a uber-corporation’s facility in America is straight out of Resident Evil. What shies this film away from rip-off territory is the actual progression it makes, with the central characters.

Selene for example, maintains her ability to walk in sunlight (gained in Underworld; Evolution), where the Resident Evil, writers had to contrive the character of Alice back into a normal human being in the latest in their vessels in order to get any drama out of her. However, it does seem that her captors were unaware of these extra abilities, so it does beg the question of why they just kept her frozen for twelve years rather than exterminating her with the rest of the Vampires.

Personally, I just imagine two guys in tact suits about to finish her off when one says to the other “wait a minute, isn’t she the central protagonist?”

That and another couple of logical flaws aside, the film is quite fun to watch. Kate Bekinsale manages to avoid the trap of making Selene into a man with breasts (as has been done with many heroines in film) by bringing some emotion to the character. The little girl is very creepy, as only a small quiet English child can be, but also brings a lot to he table in terms of vulnerability and…err…other little girl things.

Some of Selene’s allies are a bit contrived as far as motivation and with the exception of one character we don’t really see much of the humans or their reaction to the two other species, other than the first few minutes of the film.

In a closing note, the Underworld films get a lot of flak for Kate Bekinsale’s outfit, which, with my expertise in fashion I have identified as a skin-tight, rubber thing. Some people will write off this film, based purely on the way they’ve dressed the central character to appeal to one gender alone and while I fail to see the tactical advantage in a combat soldier wearing a modified wet-suit the whole time, I wouldn’t say it’s a valid reason to discredit the whole story of a film.

So where do those Guns go when you're not holding them?

Overall, not a bad film, which is a pretty good achievement for the fourth in a franchise.