I had a great story idea many years ago, the featured two sides, both werewolf and vampire that squared off in an eternal struggle for power. It dealt with a male vampire falling in love with a human female who was being hunted down by the werewolf. I even started writing a couple of pages before I sat it down never to look at it again. Imagine my surprise when not even a year later I hear that a movie called Underworld was coming out with the same type of premise. I was shocked and taken back. How strange that I had came up with the almost same idea a few months ago. There were very few changes to my story and the one in Underworld, one of course being that the main character in my story was male, the vampires (the stronger ones) could turn into mist or a swarm of bats and the werewolves could fight hand-to-hand ala The Matrix style. I of course went to go see the film and feel in love with it right away, how could one not?
After Underworld and Underworld: Evolution I felt the company was struggling to keep the franchise alive when they released the third film Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This went into the history of why the werewolves and vampires went to war. But the third movie was missing something, the original face behind Underworld, Kate Beckinsale. Sure it was a good movie, but I cared not for the history lesson, I was in-fact wondering if they ever made a sequel again would they be able to bring the character Selene played by Kate Beckinsale back?
Introduce Underworld: Awakening, the forth film in the Underworld franchise that brings back Kate Beckinsale as her original character from the first two. This time the clash between lycan and vampire are no longer a secrete and come to the attention of humans who feel that they are an abomination and wish for them to be wiped out. Enter Selena and Michael two love birds who want to leave the city, run away to some place safe where no one can hurt them. This all goes wrong when a group of solders spots Michael and decide to eliminate the target. Selene goes after the group only to wake up twelve year later in a lab where they are doing experiments to help cure people who are infected by the vampire virus.
Being not the third but rather the forth film in the series, I became quite sceptical of how well it’ll perform. I had forgotten that the film was in 3D, normally I become very disappointed with 3D films since they are normally filmed in 2D and are transformed into 3D in post production. Underworld: Awakening is not one of those films, instead the entire film (minus one or two scenes) is shot with 3D cameras allowing the viewer to really submerge themselves in the fictional world around them.
Underworld: Awakening changes the classic story of vampire vs. werewolf by introducing the human side in this epic long war between the two races. This really helps Underworld: Awakening, stand out from it’s predecessors, preventing it from becoming a movie that should have been sent straight to DVD rather than having a big theatrical release.
One thing I felt that has been missing from a lot of films now-a-day are loud films. Films in which you walk out after seeing it and your still transfixed by the orgasmic sounds that gets left behind. Underworld: Awakening is one of those films, and like a drug my ears want more.
There’s not much I can say that was bad about this film, it’s far from what I was expecting and because of that I blissfully enjoyed the film. I do feel that Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman’s character) should have had a larger part in the film but the story was written so it wouldn’t suffer at all with him not being present. Well worth the $15 or what ever the cost is to see it in 3D, the experience is worth it.
