Movie Review: 'Underworld Awakening' a waste of Beckinsale's talent

The sci-fi-horror film "Underworld Awakened" screening at the Fandango Galaxy cineplex in Carson City is the fourth iteration of the series, in this case starring Kate Beckinsale as Selene for the third time.

Selene hs been in suspended animation in a freezer for 12 years bust breaks out to find that humankind is at war with the vampires in the population a well as the werewolves.

Well, she isn't going to sit still for this and with super athleticism leaps off buildings and bumps of a bunch of cop-soldiers (hard to tell them apart but they all have machine guns).

This is the first kind of lunacy this film displays. Selene has a pair of automatic pistols that she uses the wipe out both good guys and werewolves. These are special guns that can shoot 50 rounds in a second or two and somehow never needs reloading. Not that Selene could carry extra ammo in her skin-tight outfit that looks pretty cool.

It develops that Selene has a daughter after mating with David (Michael Corvin), Eve (India Eisley). She's blonde and 13 years old but shares some of the ferocity of her werewolf father. Meeting her daughter awakens mother love and Selene protects the mutant girl.

At one point in the film Selene is shot by a cop and winds up with a hole in her forehead which quickly heals itself, leaving he bullet to rattle around in her skull. (Just roll with it. Think about anything in this movie could be dangerous to your sanity.)

Think things are a little weird so far? Hang on. At one point David dies and his father mourns him for an extended period. Selene then shows up and finds David dead and promptly without a by-your-leave from the AMA opens David's chest with her hand and inserts the hand in the chest so she can pump the heart and restore David to life (never mind that he should be brain dead after dying for a while). Guess she never heard of CPR.

Well, there's lots of werewolves dashing about and being shot by humans and vampires, and these are pretty scary beasts, nothing like the old Bela Lugosi werewolves in human form (werewolves can switch back and forth from human to monster form at a twitch of the eye).

Bad scientist is Stephen Rea as Dr. Jacob Lane. He's in it all for money for his corp, Antigen.

This whole movie is a bald attempt to cash in on the franchise, an with the ending of Selene and Eve (Eve, get it?) marching off into the sunset we can hunker down and wait for version No. 5.

Beckinsale is a dynamic figure in the film, not that any acting is required, just the ability to posse so the computers can generate her jumps and leaps and fights. Somehow one expects better from Kate, but I guess it's important to keep working in Hollywood even if the product is dreck.

Have I made the plot clear? Never mind, it's not important.at Certainly the writers of this movie didn't think it mattered.

I guess we're still in the January doldrums of movie land. Hold on, there's a couple of other new ones that might be fun. I'll keep you posted.
--- Sam Bauman

Cast

• Kate Beckinsale as Selene
• India Eisley as Eve, a hybrid; daughter of Selene and Michael Corvin. The Lycans intend to use her DNA to make themselves immune to silver and to have the vampire's ability to heal.
• Theo James as David, a vampire; son of Thomas. Killed by a Lycan during an attack in the coven and later revived by Selene.
• Michael Ealy as Detective Sebastian; he was once married to a vampire. Witnessed his wife burn by sunlight when the government conducted a door-to-door extermination. Helped Selene rescue Eve.
• Stephen Rea as Dr. Jacob Lane; the head scientist of Antigen. Secretly a Lycan and the father of Quint.
• Charles Dance as Thomas
• Sandrine Holt as Lida
• Kris Holden-Ried as Quint; a Lycan. Son of Dr. Jacob Lane. The first test subject of Antigen. He has the ability to heal and is immune to silver.
• Robert Lawrenson[4]
• DJ Miller as Lycan #1
• Ron Wear as Jack Fletcher
• William Francis as Police Officer
• Daniel Boileau as Lab Worker #3
• Panou as Old City Cop #1
• Adam Greydon Reid as Alan
• Julia Rhodes as Antigen Tech
• Jeff Sanca as Truck Driver
• Benita Ha as Surgical Nurse
• Christian Tessier as Guard
• Jesse Branden Dahl As Vampire #1
• Marvin Duerkholz as Leroy

Directed by Måns Mårlind
Björn Stein
Produced by Tom Rosenberg
Gary Lucchesi
Len Wiseman
Richard Wright
Screenplay by Len Wiseman
John Hlavin
J. Michael Straczynski
Allison Burnett
Story by Len Wiseman
Based on Characters by
Danny McBride
Kevin Grevioux
Len Wiseman
Music by John Hantzmon
Cinematography Scott Kevan
Editing by John Hantzmon Studio Lakeshore Entertainment
Running time 88 minutes, rated R