Film review: Underworld: Awakening - better off dead

Directed by Swedish directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, Underworld: Awakening is a slick looking action/horror flick, which is heavy on the gore and fan service, but tells a tale too thick, and features characters too dull, to be interesting. Frankly, there is only so much you can tell about the war between vampires and werewolves, and Awakening is the fourth installment in the franchise, carrying a plot that is long-winded as they come.

Set after the events of Underworld: Evolution, the film reveals that humanity has decided to cleanse the world of vampires and werewolves, calling them ‘the infected’. Selene (Kate Beckinsale), the vampire hybrid who has been genetically modified to have extra abilities, escapes from cryogenic suspension in a human medical corporation called Antigen.

She quickly learns that twelve years have passed since her capture, and that humans believe they have eradicated all werewolves, and are on the verge of finishing off the vampire race as well. She also starts getting visions, which she believes will lead her to her love interest from the previous films. But these visions instead lead her to befriend other vampire survivors, including a mysterious vampire named Eve (India Eisley), who was also one of the test subjects in the lab, and was the one who released Selene. Later Selene discovers some surprising details about Eve’s origins, as well as her abilities.

Meanwhile, the director of the medical corporation Antigen, Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea), is shown to secretly be a werewolf, alongside his son, Quint Lane (Kris Holden-Ried). It is also revealed that the antidote the corporation has been working on is in actuality a serum that will remove traditional weaknesses from werewolves, and enhance their overall strengths. To complete the production of this serum, Dr. Lane needs to recapture Selene, and sends his son, alongside other werewolf goons, to get her back.

What follows is a lot of tedious action, with the film highlighting Selene, as she rallies vampires to battle both werewolves and humans, while looking to rebuild their race.

In the end, Selene narrates her desire to continue her search for her love, Michael, by which time I lost complete interest.  The only way in which the characters from Underworld could be watchable, was if they slaughtered the cast of Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2. Now, that would be a vampire/werewolf film worth watching!

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 4^th, 2012.