Underworld Awakening: "My Heart Is Not Cold. It's Broke"

Director: Mans Marlind
               Bjorn Stein
Writer:    Len Wiseman
               John Hlavin
Starring: Kate Beckinsale
               Sandrine Holt
               India Eisley
               Theo James
               Michael Ealy
               Stephen Rea
               Charles Dance
Rating:    *

Release Date: Out Now 

This over the top vampire movie, which I guess is meant to be a revival for the series, fails to even muster up the slightest bit of excitement and adds no new life to an already dying franchise. Defrosted after 12 years in cryogenic prison, slinky Lycan-slayer, Selene (Beckinsale), wakes up to find a world where Lycans (like werewolves) and vampires are virtually non-existent due to genocidal humans hunting them all. She also discovers that she has a daughter, Subject 2 or Eve (Eisley), who is being used for various tests by the evil and ruthless bio-tech scientist Dr Jacob Lane (Rea). 

She soon receives help form a kind and caring cop, detective Sebastian (Ealy) and an attractive male vampire, David (James), Selene breaks into Antigen’s lab, hoping to rescue her hybrid daughter. What she wasn't quite ready for was the giant, genetically-enhanced super-Lycan capable of casually tossing cars and punching great holes in walls. Things soon get nasty as the camp and over the top action kicks in.

Swedish joint-directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, manage to take every scene and action sequence and basically use it as  toilet roll.. They somehow manage to completely forget to explain or expand on the series’ already existent mythology, but then they actually fail to take the new information and plot twists they have, and get them to make any sense or integrate well with what is already known by the fans. They try their hardest to make it up to the audience as much as they can, but somehow awful 3D violence, badly choreographed fight scenes, and the over usage of wire work does not make up for their poor film, in fact it only makes it worse. Seeing as I just vaguely mentioned the 3D I will now quickly add that it is stupidly distracting, learn to use it well Hollywood or don't use it at all.

Beckinsale is as striking as ever in her skin-tight latex outfit, but even her highly anticipated return to the tired series cannot spice things up or give it any extra pazazz. India Eisley, who plays Eve, is about as wooden as an actress can get, she stars in that awful Secret Life of an American Teenager, which is known for ruining good actors, but she is just awkward and annoying in all her roles. Admittedly the bad script and poor direction doesn't help, so maybe that has let her down; I'm gonna have to wait for her to be given a decent script before I really judge her. To be perfectly honest, apart from Beckinsale's Selene who we already know, all of the new characters are badly written, poorly developed and really quite dull. Nothing about them is intriguing and you really don't care what happens to them. I really think that now is the time to put this franchise to sleep, because it is well past it's sell by date.

Underworld: Awakening - Trailer