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Friday, April 26, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating ***
The "Underworld" franchise has never been about great cinema. This
unselfconscious series has been about a credible story backed by good special
effects riding on the fighting skills of a latex-wearing lead femme fatale.
Though seemingly this isn`t such a hard deal to maintain, the series had indeed
been lurching on the edge, ready for a nosedive. "Underworld:
Awakening" skews the balance in its favour, delivering a good action packed
special effects ride that does not seem like a waste of money on stupid special
effects.
The discovery of vampires and Lycans in their midst lead humans to hunt them
down. Serene (Kate Beckinsale) and her Lycan-hybrid lover try to escape but are
separated by a human attack. Serene wakes up 12 years later to find a changed
world where the vampires and Lycans are almost extinct. Or so everyone thinks,
till she discovers two secrets: one about their species and the other about
herself.
There is nothing original in either the story or its progression. Yet, directors
Måns Mårlind and Bjorn Stein know their craft enough to ensure that the film
does not go over the top or be self-consciously pretentious. In evenly playing
out the story, they give the film a credibility and emotion that seem to have
been missing in the last installment.
As it had been from the start, this too is Kate Beckinsale`s film. Cinematic
sister of the latex-wearing Carrie Anne Moss in "Matrix", Kate looks
as young as she did in the first part nine years ago and as ferociously
vulnerable.
This part does a few interesting departures for the fans of the series. Humans,
who had so far been excluded from the fight, feature in this. In that sense, the
film brings the war between vampires and werewolves into the foreground from the
underground with humans playing both enemies and allies to them.
The writers were also obviously referring to their series while naming the film
"Awakening". From going into the history of the past in the last two
films, it finally comes back to the present, thus rebooting the franchise with
some interesting friends and foes thrown into the picture. There will obviously
a fifth part in 2015. After all we have had one "Underworld" film
every three years.
For action and gore junkies, there`s enough of both to salivate them. A decent
Hollywood action film is expected to have typically conceptualized shots that
make the audience hold their breath and which often involves the protagonist
making creative use of his/her guns. This one has a spectacular one with a lift
and other well choreographed scenes.
Throw into that a little bit of motherly emotion for good measure, and the film
manages to be just the ride dope for the lovers of irreverent, unselfconscious
and often pointless action films.
Underworld 4: Awakening brings a stunning new dimension to the epic battle between Vampires and Lycans, as the first film in the franchise to shoot in 3D.
Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.
