Review: Underworld: Awakening (2012)

People in the Movie: Kate Beckinsale (Underworld, Van Helsing), Theo James, Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta, The Crying Game), India Eisley (Secret Life of an American Teenager)

Directors: Mans Marlind, Bjorn Stein

Pigeonhole: Fantasy / Action / Thriller

Basics: Shortly after the events of Underworld: Evolution, humans decide to wage war on the vampires and lycans (werewolves) in a move that was called the "Purge".  Selene (Beckinsale), the 'Death Dealer' vampire-warrior and protagonist from the past 2 installments reprises her role.  She is captured and kept in frozen stasis for 12 years at the Antigen Company (a typical "big evil company").  Selene escapes and learns that she and Michael - her half vampire/half lycan lover - had a child (Eisley), and this child is part of a nefarious plot by Antigen.

Recommendation:  Entertaining visuals and decent action sequences make this worth seeing.  As a standalone you would have a diffucult time understanding some plot elements and the history.  'R' rating is for violence, and language.    

My thoughts: Having seen and enjoyed the the three prior Underworld installments, I was finally able to catch up with this film.  When Awakening was over, I was left for wanting.  The theatrical presentation of Awakening was 3D, and I watched it in 2D, so it possible some minor entertainment value could have been added with the extra visual experience. 
The movie's look of the dark, shadowy perpetual night that we have come to enjoy from the prior Underworlds, is still here.  Selene remains sullen with the forever bitter look on her face, but she still manages to pull off the amazing combat acrobatics, and firing off the seemingly endless supply of bullets at whomever stands in her way.  The plot is seriously lacking, which is very surprising considering that Len Wiseman, the director and/or producer of the prior Underworld installments, was involved in the screenplay for Awakening.
**spoiler alert**
After Selene escapes she has visions through another person's eyes and realizes she has psychic link to "someone", that she initially believes is Michael.  Now encouraged to be reuniting with him and fleeing her pursuers - both Anitgen and the police at this point - she discovers her link is actually with a female child (she is called Eve in the credits, but I do not recall anyone ever referring to her by that name).
A vampire named David (James) comes to their aid as Selene and Eve soon become trapped by lycans and the authorities.  David takes the two to his coven, whom we see are residing in an underground gothic looking dungeon.  Selene, who apparently is now infamous among the vampires, is informed that is 12 years since her initial capture and that vampires are near extinct, while the lycans were supposed to have been eradicated as well (but clearly not being the case since their escape moments ago from lycans).  Selene is also informed that Michael was killed the night of her capture.  We also learn that Eve is a very powerful vampire/lycan hybrid, like her father.  The leader of the coven, and David's father, Thomas (Charles Dance), wants Selene and Eve gone from their crypt so that no unwanted attention is brought to them.  Too late.
A pack of lycans led by an uber-lycan - he is twice the size of his peers, immune to silver, and quickly self heals - launch an attack on the small group of vampires with the intention of capturing Eve, and succeed.  So it is up to Selene, with the assistance of a human rogue cop-who-can't-follow-the-rules, to go back to Anitgen to free her daughter. 
Anitgen is led by a man named Dr. Jacob Lane (Rea) and we soon discover that Anitgen are not militant humans bent on cleansing the world of immortals, but are, in fact, lycans, and Lane is working on a cloning process and "super-serum" that will make all lycans just like the previously mentioned uber-lycan (who also happens to be Lane's son).  The key to the cloning process involves Eve, hence Anitgen's urgent desire to have her back. 
After plenty more gunfire complimented with several explosions, Selene frees Eve, and the evil lycans are dead as the credits roll.  One more item to chew on - we learn that Michael was not dead, he was in stasis and escaped during Selene's attack on Anitgen.  I sense another sequel.

Items of Concern:
- Maybe I just missed it, but it is not explained if Eve was a lab creation of Anitgen using Selene and Michael's DNA, or if Selene actually gave birth to Eve.
- Stephen Rea and Charles Dance are both excellent established actors and it just "seems" like they were either grossly underused, or that their scenes may have hit the cutting room floor.  Especially Charles Dance.
- Building on the prior note about editing/ cuts - the movie, at 88 minutes, did not seem to develop any of the major plot items.  There was nothing done with Selene being a mother or mother figure; no establishment or development of Eve and her place in this world, other than being a test subject for Antigen; only a very minor acknowledgement of the fall from power of the vampires; and only minor interaction with the human race, who in turn seemed vampire sympathetic.
- I am not sure why the director/ producers dangled Michael for about 3 minutes early in the film, only to have him supposedly be dead, only to have him escape at the end without making contact with Selene and Eve.  That made very little sense to me, other than editing his parts out, or a sad attempt to set up a sequel.
- Hiding the reveal about the lycans rising to power through Anitgen was a good idea, but not developed whatsoever.  There was no attempt to bridge their fall starting from from Lucien's death in the original film, until their apparent rise to world power by the begining of this film.  To have these powerful lycans taken down in a matter of minutes by Selene was kind of a reach considering that this group was behind the "Purge" and had supposedly eliminated most of the vampire population already.       

In Conclusion: Seeing Beckinsale back in this action role was fun.  The stunt work and effects in the action sequences will keep you entertained.  As far as the ongoing Underworld mythology, there is no new ground really broken here and the proverbial vampire-lycan war will rage on.  This could have been a great installment if the plot holes had not been so big.