Thursday, June 7, 2012

Underworld Awakening - DVD Review

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy, Charles Dance, Theo James and India Eisley.  Directed by Marland & Stein.

½

After skipping Underworld 3, Kate Beckinsale is back for Underworld 4 and the result is breathtakingly... repetitive. It might as well be a Resident Evil sequel.

They rewrite some of the events from Underworld 2 to get Selene asleep in cryogenic freeze for 12 years. She awakens to a world where the vampires have been identified and eradicated. Right off the bat, she kills about twelve humans escaping the lab, more than a few begging her to not kill them. So... Selene's the bad guy, right?

Nope. We're to root for her as she fights back against a Lychan conspiracy, and since we don't have Michael Sheen's werewolf here to root for, I guess it's okay to just take it in stride that the lychans are the bad guys, and the vampires are the good guys. They're the underdogs.

The highlight for me was seeing Charles Dance (Game of Thrones' Tywin Lannister) as a vampire. But he's not in it enough, and nothing else about this movie is necessary or even justifies its existence. And yes, they leave it open for Underworld 5. Let it go.

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