Movie Review: Underworld: Awakening

The Underworld franchise is pretty much the go-to series for action/horror hybrids in the 2000's. They deliver on everything the terrible Resident Evil movies try to be. Entertaining action/horror movies with a female heroine kicking a whole lot of ass with some story and plenty of blood and gore thrown in for good measure. The latest installment (fourth overall, third of the original series) Underworld: Awakening focuses more on the action and less on the vampire/werewolf mythology and it still works well after all these years. At 88 minutes, it's brisk, relatively brainless fun that doesn't outstay it's welcome. The gore is way turned up in this one opposed to the previous installments. Almost every scene contained some kind of dismemberment or gallons of spraying blood. It was good to have Kate Beckinsale return to the franchise. Rhona Mitra did a pretty decent job in the prequel Rise of the Lycans, but the Underworld franchise is based around Beckinsale as Selene. The rest of the characters are kind of throwaway (with the exception of Michael Ealy as the human cop that assists Selene who is pretty interesting and unexpected for this series.), but that's not really a problem in a movie like Underworld. The focus is solely on Selene now after the events of the first two and every other character is just kind of there. Underworld: Awakening is another worthy entry in the franchise. It's entertaining and loaded with action and gore. Though it comes with less story than in past installments, It's still worth the ride if a fan of the series or are looking for a simple, fun action movie.

3.5/5 Stars