As always to experience the ultimate in luxury I recommend Ultraluxe Cinemas in the Anaheim Garden Walk. With new releases being shown on their 65 foot screen with unparalleled sound, It does not get any better.
Underworld: Awakening
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Early, Theo James, India Eisley
Director: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein
Rated: R
12 years after the events in the original Underworld, Selene is thawed out and soon realizes that humans have eradicated both the lycans and vampires, with the remaining few forced into hiding. With Selene’s(Kate Beckinsale) hybrid Lycan/Vampire daughter Eve (India Eisley) coming of age the Lycans have found a way to harvest her DNA utilizing it to make them stronger and realize there dream of being the primary species, If they can stop Selene from saving Eve.
Awakenings is high on action while being low on plot, it is streamlined more than Beckinsales deliciously skin tight leather suit. AU doesn’t bring anything new to the genre nor does it attempt to, what it does do is tighten it up. Getting rid of anything that isn’t moving the film forward, commonly referred to as a lack of plot, If you see a movie like this for plot I would explain to you the error of your ways but you are clearly not bright enough to understand. You get everything you want and no extra filler. Beckinsale might be a decade older and a mother but she still looks great as the Death Dealer, employing Solid wire work to go along with a healthy dose of action and violence. I am still not a fan of the Underworld Lycans, the use of CGI in the transformation scenes still pale in comparison to Rick Bakers ground breaking effects in an American Werewolf in London.
The change process happens so quickly and without discomfort that changing from human to werewolf is more in line with a “Transformers” transformation than that of a traditional werewolf, your body is stretching and tearing, joints shifting, Skeletal structure shifting, this change shouldn’t be the equivalent of putting on your werewolf shirt, It should be a bit more painful and time consuming. On the plus side Awakenings has a running time of under an hour and a half, it’s the film equivalent of not overstaying your welcome. By the time you would tell underworld it’s time to call it a night and go home, the films been over for a half hour. The only down side to this all action concept is the film feels too much like a setup for the next one rather than a standalone film.
Grade - 79
