Underworld Awakening Review

Ever since the first Underworld I have been addicted to the series. To be quite honest, vampires are a guilty pleasure of mine. That's really why I love True Blood. (And just for the record I'm really not a fan of the Twilight franchise, just to get that out of the way.) Another really big factor for why I love the Underworld franchise so much is because I literally grew up with the series. On top of that I have been madly in love with Kate Beckinsale since I first saw her in the first Underworld film.

The premise of this film is that the Lycan's (werewolves) and Vampire species have been discovered by humans and now they are on a campaign to completely wipe all of them out. In midst of all this is Selene (Kate Beckinsale) and a girl called subject 2 who inadvertently convinced an entire vampire coven (vampire hideout) to fight back against not only the humans, but the Lycans as well.

So just in case I lost anybody back there, they are fighting two separate species one which are just raw power and can rip a vampire in half with relative ease, and one who have literally engineered a way to completely exterminate both races. In my opinion this premise makes for one ass kickery of a time.(Shut-up, I make up words!)  

The beauty of this film is that you really don't need to see the other installments in the series if you haven't already to fully get what's going on in this film. It does help if you have seen the other installments, but it's not entirely necessary. This film looks you in the vampiric baby blues and says "Hold on to your balls, this is gonna be a fun ride."

Now I haven't timed this exactly, however, by my estimate the movie gives you 4-7 minutes to regroup and catch your breath before it plunges you face first into another action sequence. As a fan of the series this is really what I've been waiting for the entire time Underworld has been in production.





Surprisingly enough for a budget of only $70 million (by "only" I mean compared to larger affairs like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows)  the CG effects were very well done and looked convincing enough. Not to mention the gore in this film was awesome.  And just on a side note, this film managed to do something that has not been done in a while. It has a twist that I really did not see coming at all.

All in all, everything about this film was a blast. The acting, for the most part, was solid. The action was top notch, the audio was heart-pounding, and for long time fans of the franchise (like myself) it was very satisfying to see how this actually ended. I would definatly say it is worth the outrageous $18.50 price tag for the 3D IMAX experience. Besides all that, as if you need another reason to see this movie, it's really hard to resist a woman with two guns, a perfect body, and a skin tight leather suit.