Underworld: Awakening

Much like Kate Beckinsale, the Underworld franchise is starting to show it's age.

     The not unexpected plot of Selene and the not-appearing-in-this-film Michael Corvin's (Scott Speedman) daughter being born is advanced when the unnatural couple are cryogenically captured after fleeing government forces bent on wiping out all lycans and vampires, and kept on ice for 12 years. Ok, Michael does appear in the film but for maybe all of 30 seconds.Selene, also known as "Subject 1" is released from her cryogenic sleep by "subject 1". Having the ability to see through Subject 2's eyes, Selene fights her way out of the mysterious lab she's being held at, run by Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea), and tracks down her rescuer who turns out to be her 12 year old daughter, played by then-17-year-old India Esiley, Eve (groan). The lycans and vampires still haven't made nice. Instead of banding together to fight the humans, they contine to fight each other and the humans at the same time. Sounds good, but personally, I liked it better when the vampires and lycans were still the stuff of nightmares. Kinda sucks when humans find out about them and bring them to the brink of extinction. Seriously, do these things have any really good powers?

     The lycans, are now focusing their attention on acquiring Eve for their evil plans and soon have her in their clutches. Selene, the protective, if somewhat cold, mom enlists the help of Detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy) and fellow vampire David (Theo James). Turned out by Davids disapproving father Thomas, played without the personality of previous head vampires, by Charles Dance, Selene and Detective Sebastian set out to recover Eve and find out what the lycans want with her. Shenanigans ensue.

    Am i missing something or are these the lamest vampires ever? It seems they get their darkness-dwelling butts handed to them in every fight. Seriously, they may as well be special forces commandos that drink blood. If it weren't for their extensive firepower, they'd have been annihilated by now. There's a reason you never see Selene (Kate Beckinsale) not dual-wielding those pistols of hers. It's because they add to what seems to be these vampires' most important trait, their clothes! I think the producers were more interested in getting the right angles of Selene's flapping black trench coat then in making a better movie. Ok, we get that vampires land on their feet from great heights. I don't need to see it multiple times in every Underworld film. And what's with the lycans this time around? They look kinda skinny and big-headed.
     Regardless of the negatives, the movie is still good enough to entertain you for it's 90 minute run. In general, it didn't make a good movie bad, but rather stopped a good movie from being better. The action was well-paced if somewhat silly in places to the point of Selene using a very similar escape from the first film, though much more sloppily. Most of the acting was good, with the exception of some lame performances.
     The visuals, color, and special effects all complimented each other. The scenes were a rich black but never to the point where detail was lost. Indeed, they were a major part of the look of the film and added great contrast to many a scene.
     The audio is a bit tricky. The bass was rumbly enough that it kept overloading my subwoofer. Yes, time for a new one, I know. Due to that, I had to lower the volume at certain points. Even when I had the volume at my normal high level, the center channel dialog seemed a bit low. Perhaps too much focus was spent on the booms rather than on the subtleties.  But then again, Underworld isn't about being subtle. Is it?

The blu-ray comes packed with these extras:
Filmmaker's Commentary
Blooper Reel
Heavy Prey Music Video featuring Lacey Stum of Flyleaf and ex-Filter guitarist Geno Lenardo
5 Behind the Scenes featurettes
Cracking the Underworld: A Picture-in-Picture feature
  
Specs:
Video: 1080p High Definition 2.40:1 aspect ratio
Audio: English 7.1 DTS-HD MA, French 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English Audio Description Track
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French Spanish