If you’ve just woken up from a decade long cryogenic hibernation what’s the first thing you do? Unless you answered, ransack the nearest lockers for form fitting pleather don’t even bother to play this game with me.
The UNDERWORLD series is to vampires and werewolves what the RESIDENT EVIL franchise is to zombies. But where EVIL knows its place in the filmic hierarchy, reveling in its b-movie bona fides, UNDERWORLD ruthlessly insists on playing the whole thing straight, going for an unrelenting grim and gritty vibe, punctuated only by flashy MATRIX-like displays of gun play and bloodletting.
Ultimately, UNDERWORLD is a franchise that has hit its best-before date. Where once the series felt new and fresh the innovations it made to the supernatural action thriller have been surpassed by other films. Now the movie is left cannibalizing its own characters, stories and themes; content to feed on its past glories rather than attempt to try something new.
(Also. 3D. HANNNNNND FLAAAAPING!)
I actually watched since am a huge fan too of The Underworld franchise and thought it did a pretty good job.
ReplyDeleteIt just needed Michael so maybe that had to do more with the story's direction.
Thank you for reviewing Underworld: Awakening, Chris! I recently started ordering pay per view movies online before I leave work at DISH in the afternoon, and it is ready to watch from my Hopper DVR by the time I get home. I watched Awakening last night and I was underwhelmed. You are right that they have resorted to self cannibalization; there was nothing in this movie that I hadn’t seen in the series before. Maybe Underworld is due for a reboot; since that’s the thing to do these days.
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