Made in 2012 and starring Kate Beckinsale, and Theo James Underworld: Awakening is the fourth instalment of the Underworld franchise. It is the second sequel to 2003’s Underworld: Evolution.
New War, and a New World
Set six months after the end of Evolution Selene (Beckinsale) and Michael are fleeing the city after the human race learned of the existence of vampires and werewolves. They are attacked before they can leave and during an explosion Selene sees Michael drifting away from her into the dark depths of the sea.
Twelve years later Selene awakens from cryogenic suspension only to find herself locked in a secure government facility. After killing a number of guards to make her escape she starts seeing images in her mind of another place through someone else’s eyes. Believing that they might belong to Michael she follows the images and finds not Michael but a young girl, who is terrified and alone. Felling a bond with the child Selene takes the child with her and tries to escape the city only to be discovered by fellow vampire, David (James). After taking them to his coven, Selene starts to learn the truth about the new world and begins to realise that despite the intervention of the human race an old enemy is growing more powerful, and more deadly.
New Film, Ultimately, Same Story
The whole point of the first Underworld film was the blending of the bloodlines in order to create a new species of immortal, one that contained the strength of both vampire and werewolf, but possessed none of their weaknesses. At the end of the film, Lucian, managed to achieve just that in Michael Corvin. Now, most would think that the sequel Evolution would follow Michael as he faced off against another hybrid, Marcus, but alas the film instead focussed on Selene. Whilst Evolution was a decent film with plenty of blood, violence and a little casual nudity thrown in, it was the not the film that it should have been.
Sadly Awakening follows suit, and once again focuses on Selene. Michael appears in the film but he is only seen in the distance and is not being played by Scott Speedman, admittedly the guy they are using as a stand-in does look enough like him, and has his likeness superimposed on his face, for audiences who didn’t know that is wasn’t him to think that it was. However, he essentially only cameos. Similarly with Evolution, his presence is almost pointless, and he could quite easily have never been seen onscreen throughout the proceedings.
Ultimately Awakening fails to live up to its potential, the human race knows that vampires and lycans exist, and is hunting down both species. This could have opened up all kinds of possibilities with the vampires and lycans putting aside their differences to work together against the humans. Regrettably, it seems that the film makers were happy to follow Kate Beckinsale around once again wearing her skin tight outfit (that in itself is not a bad thing) and focus on her rather than allowing some of the other more interesting characters to come forward and have their stories told.
Acting wise Beckinsale is clearly at home in the role of Selene, but she is not joined by anyone from the original film or the sequel. The previous films characters are seen in flashbacks, although, that is it. Whilst Selene is an immortal character and doesn’t age, it is clear that Beckinsale has changed in the last nine years since the previous film. It is therefore harder to believe that Selene is immortal because she is visibly looks older than she did in the earlier films.
Whilst Awakening isn’t a bad film, it had so much potential, and perhaps if the sequel the ending leaves open is in fact made, then perhaps, just perhaps, the film makers will finally realise that whilst Selene is a decent character, they need to put her on the sidelines and focus either on Michael or the only true hybrid known to exist.
3/5
Decent enough addition to the franchise but it could have been so much better.
Christopher Sharman - In 2009 I self-published my first novel entitled The Darkness Saga: The Light (currently available at amazon.co.uk) which has been ...
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