Film Review: Underworld Awakening (2012)

By Scott Jeffrey

Just when you thought that they couldn’t make another underworld film suddenly one more comes along. Not that this is a terrible thing it’s rarely ever horrible to see Kate Beckinsale in that outfit. But doesn’t deliver the same thrills as the other films? Let’s find out.

Underworld 4:Awakening, takes place six months after the events of underworld evolution. Human governments have begun a genocidal campaign against vampires and Lykens known as the purge. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is captured and put into cryogenic stasis. Known as subject one Selene is freed 12 years after her capture by an entity known only as subject 2. After escaping the facility where she is held, Selene begins to have strange visions. Her assumption is that these visions are linked to her lover, Michael Corvin.

Selene eventually links these visions to young girl only known as Eve (India Eisley). Who was later revealed to be a hybrid just like Michael. Soon revealed is that the research facility where they were both held is in fact run by Lycans in disguise. The object of their research is to create a new breed of Lycans. All of this research done in complete secret under the noses of human governments which are still seeking to find and kill any non-humans. With both the humans and Lycans out to get them, Selene finds an ally in David (Theo James), a fellow vampire and must take refuge with his group of vampires to defend her and Eve from the human/ Lycan hordes.

The music was as to be expected, nothing terribly memorable. Underworld is never been known to have an amazing score. The soundtrack is a different entity entirely it’s too bad that it didn’t make the film. They have remixes from artists like The Cure and 8mm, which would’ve been great to include in the feature.

Acting in this film is sort of an afterthought. Most of the film is action based, there is of course a little bit of emotion with the girl Eve in peril. Most of the emotional scenes sort of come across as having a very robotic acting style in this film. It’s as if they’re just added in between the gratuitous action scenes to fill time. Not that I expected any great shakes out of an Underworld film let alone an Underworld sequel.

The visuals weren’t even too impressive either. The Lycans look like they were animated using a really old stop motion technique and didn’t seem to have much fluidity to their movement. With all the computer-generated animation studios that there is today it’s a wonder that Underworld didn’t shop around to get the scariest looking monster possible. During a high-speed van chase the animation looks choppy enough to be a throwback to the original Clash of the Titans.

Score: 5/10

Acting: 4/10

Effects/Visual: 5/10

Writing: 4/10

Directing: 5/10

Overall: 23/50

Take away thought: This is a good popcorn film. That is to say if you need something to watch while you’re eating a bowl of really good popcorn, go ahead and put this on. It really won’t take a lot of your attention away from your really good bowl of popcorn which should be the main focus. It’s got some cool action scenes but for the most part you could fast forward through most of it. If you’re big fan of the series go for it.