Underworld: Awakening (Mårlind, Stein)

[TGM]

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING

Directors: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein

imdb page

[TGM]

Nay. I just don't even know what to do with this. This one completely misses the mark of what made the first three films enjoyable. I mean, the first two weren't great, but they were at least fun and enjoyable. And even the third was still fun, even if it was entirely pointless. But they totally dropped the ball with this one. There's no delving into any of the mythology here, hell, there's hardly even any vampires at all other than Kate Beckinsale. They make up about 10 minutes of the movie, then poof, they're gone. But there's tons of lycans here, and the CGI on them looks particularly awful this time around.

But I dunno what happened with this movie. I mean, sure, I don't expect that much from an Underworld movie, but I would like to see at least a little bit of effort put in! This is essentially just a 90 minute action sequence, only they don't have any fun with it this time around. And considering what miniscule amount of plot that they gave us, they didn't even have the common courtesy to finish it off, instead opting for the totally bullshit sequel bait ending. The first three are all about on par with one another, but the quality just plummeted with this one. Pretty disappointing...

[Watashi]

I'm sure the forum will see this movie.

[TGM]

Well at least one person did...

[Skitch]

I'm going to when I get a chance.

[eternity]

I hate very few movies more than I do Underworld Evolution. You couldn't pay me to watch this.

[Adam]

I've never seen another underworld movie but, yeah, more than anything this just felt incredibly lazy. Stephen Rea in particular gives an all-time "only here to collect a paycheck, lads" performance. Also whatever limited stakes this movie had evaporated when the only two minor supporting characters they kill off are instantly brought back to life through bullshit

[Skitch]

This was as good as any Underworld movie. I bet the 3D was neat, but we saw the 2D version, due to timing.

[Adam]

Normally I find the dimming effect 3D glasses have to be distracting, but I saw this in Imax 3D and it looked pretty good. The palette of these movies is probably more conducive to 3D than most stuff

[Dukefrukem]

Watched this and I echo TGM. There's a little bit of style left, but it doesn't even feel like effort was put into the plot and dialog. It's pretty sad actually because this franchise could have survived post Beckensale. It still managed to rake in $100 mil overseas. But god damn, where did that $70 mil budget go??

Was this written to be a 2 part movie? Feels like it.

[Rowland]

Not good exactly, but a bit more diverting than expected. This is the first Underworld I've sat through in its entirety, but compared to what I have seen from the previous installments, this appears to feature less mythologizing exposition, a more streamlined narrative (following the Syd Field model to a tee), a steadier parade of action sequences (which are for the most part reasonably coherent and stylish as far as this low-rent folderol is concerned), and more explicit, brutal, even callous violence, qualities that can either be considered improvements or detriments depending on one's opinion of the previous films and what they're looking for here. It's all still pretty stupid, obvious, and soulless, but I feared worse. And I hope Stephen Rea was compensated well, because he has a look on his face throughout the entire film as if he's contemplating suicide.