![]()
Kate Beckinsale slips back into the leather catsuit and corset with Underworld: Awakening. So confident was Sony about her return that they stacked the production with an incredible $70 million budget. For number four, the franchise’s most essential participant was back front and center while original director Len Wiseman continued to relinquish directorial duties. He stayed on as both a producer and screenwriter, joined by the surprisingly esteemed talents of J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling) and Allison Burnett (Fame). Awakening marks the first time that series mainstay Danny McBride would abstain from script duties, symbolizing a desire on the studio’s part to infuse Underworld with fresh, uh, blood. This shift in the “old guard” makes Wiseman the only original writer to remain and is oddly symbolic of the plot, which finds Selene on her own.
Related Stories: Before the Blood Wars Part 1, Before the Blood Wars Part 2, Before the Blood Wars Part 3
Awakening moves the series into new territory so fast it’s almost jarring. Following the death of Alexander Corvinus, nobody has taken up his burden of covering the aftermath of vampire and lycan skirmishes. As such, humankind discovers the existence of these creatures and initiates a purge to deal with them. This sends extermination squads into the streets to execute anything that isn’t human, and it’s an idea with tons of potential. Previous movies skirted the human perspective, but it’s a logical predicament for which to thrust Selene. The opening finds her on the run from a squad of commandos, and the urgency of this might’ve been all Awakening needed. The more I think about it, the more I fantasize about an Escape from New York scenario with Selene forging an alliance with vampires and lycans to escape these extermination armies. This opening crackles with an energy Underworld hasn’t previously seen, with Selene essentially killing her way to freedom. Her murderous tendencies displeased fans hung up on her shifting attitude, having once told Michael that feeding from a human “isn’t something you want on your conscience.” But times have changed and Selene with them.
Awakening was likely truncated before release. It clocks in at 78 minutes without credits, and there are times where this aggressive edit leaves the story frustratingly incoherent. When we pick up with Selene, she’s hanging out inside a warehouse while Michael is off chartering a boat for their escape. What the heck is she doing there? It’s never explained. Later in the movie, Selene’s daughter is foisted upon her (and the audience) without any real explanation, making the logistics of her birth a head scratcher. Blu-ray’s supplements tell us Selene was pregnant during the prologue but like many other things here, it’s under-explained. Vagaries like this are frustrating when the original Underworld is so dedicated to its details.
![]()
At other points, Awakening simply moves too fast. After the quick intro, Selene is captured and thrown into twelve years of cryogenic sleep. She awakens to a world where her constants have been stripped away: Michael is nowhere to be found, the purge has forced vampires into hiding, and lycans are nearly extinct. This isn’t the world she knew, and the prospect of a fish-out-of-water story with Selene is the second interesting premise Awakening squanders.
One of the things I like about Beckinsale’s Selene is her willingness to be vulnerable. It’s been one of Underworld’s strengths from the start, and what separates it from other action franchises (including similar female-led ones). Some of Selene’s brutality stems from her being alone and terrified. Awakening isn’t all that interested in exploring this, but Beckinsale’s game to give it. She’s better than given credit for, even if she doesn’t have many opportunities to be more than a woman of action. That’s what makes this the slightest Underworld to date. It brings plenty of ideas to the table but never makes good on any. We find out that the pharmaceutical company that captured her is really just a front for lycans who are trying to strengthen their DNA through the blood of Selene’s offspring. With this revelation, the series settles back into another lycan slugfest and that’s a shame after teasing more intriguing storylines.
Earlier in this retrospective series, I talked about how every sequel would improve upon aspects of its predecessor while being an overall weaker experience. Awakening has only the faintest hint of a story, but directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein keep it lively with some of the most assured action sequences yet. And while this may be slight, it rolls at a breakneck clip. It’s also the most visually appealing Underworld yet, with immersive 3D and Gothic graphic novel imagery that brought the series to life in the first place.
There’s also an array of new characters. The advanced promotional materials made much ado about Eve (India Eisley), Selene’s vampire/lycan hybrid daughter, but the character isn’t very interesting. She’s here to make Selene a little more sympathetic and little else. The producers felt Eve might be a suitable replacement for Selene at some point, an absurd consideration, given her marginal development. Michael Ealy does what he can as Selene’s human ally, a police detective whose wife became a vampire during the purge. Ealy establishes his character in a handful of quick scenes, but it’s another missed opportunity to see a normal human ally in this universe. Things get marginally better once Selene finds a surviving vampire coven livingunderground, even though the movie’s problems persist. Charles Dance lends the story much needed depth as the leader of a coven. His relationship with Selene is nicely tense, and he’s able to sell the world’s direness with limited screen time. I’m really happy he’s back in Blood Wars, as the franchise needs someone of his caliber in order to remain true to its roots.
While Awakening is quite far from perfect, I enjoy the hell out of it. Yes, undeveloped concepts rule the day, driving the expansive lore underground like this movie’s vampires and lycans. But it’s never boring. It’s odd for Sony to invest so much and produce something so wafer-thin, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by this. There has never been any word of Awakening manifesting in a longer version, but I’d love to see one (Sony didn’t even include deleted scenes on this disc).
There has been talk of an Underworld television series as well as one final outing for Selene (beyond Blood Wars). While I’m glad there’s talk of keeping the series alive, why isn’t there more effort to do it between films? It was a five-year wait between the last two Underworlds, the longest yet. A few books and comics might’ve taken the sting off. Awakening is the first Underworld to go without a novelization. The lack of literary tie-ins is a bummer, although Darkstorm Comics released an Underworld: Blood Wars comic book written by one of the series’ creators, Kevin Grevioux. Grevioux also penned a kickass Rise of the Lycans comic book adaptation a few years back, and I’d love for him to pen more Underworld stories in any medium. With so many possibilities, it seems like Sony is being shortsighted. We’ve only seen pieces of this vampire and lycan war, and it’s raged for centuries. Give me Kraven’s betrayal. Selene in the 80s. Whatever you’ve got, I’ll take it.
Awakening actually grows the Underworld sandbox to where it’s more than just vampires battling werewolves. The original’s commitment to itself is swept aside because of current Screen Gems management. These films must hover perpetually around the 90 minute mark now. On one hand, it’s a bummer because the series wouldn’t have endured if it started this way (right, Ultraviolet?). But Awakening is an entertaining action movie in its own right. My hope is that Blood Wars rights some of its wrongs while getting back in step with the series mythos.
The post Before the Blood Wars Part 4: Awakening in a Strange Land appeared first on Dread Central.
If there were any one star we hoped would outlive us all it would be Angus Scrimm. A master actor and the sweetest man I ever met, he was the epitome of the term, class act. On tap right now we have the trailer and poster for Scrimm’s final film appearance Dances With Werewolves.
Kate Beckinsale slips back into the leather catsuit and corset with Underworld: Awakening. So confident was Sony about her return that they stacked the production with an incredible $70 million budget. For number four, the franchise’s most essential participant was back front and center while original director Len Wiseman continued to relinquish directorial duties. He stayed on as both a producer and screenwriter, joined by the surprisingly esteemed talents of J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling) and Allison Burnett (Fame). Awakening marks the first time that series mainstay Danny McBride would abstain from script duties, symbolizing a desire on the studio’s part to infuse Underworld with fresh, uh, blood. This shift in the “old guard” makes Wiseman the only original writer to remain and is oddly symbolic of the plot, which finds Selene on her own.
