UNDERWORLD AWAKENING (Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, 2011)
Fans of the UNDERWORLD series have long waited for Kate Beckinsale's return as the leather-clad, double pistoled vampire Selene. The last we saw her was in 2006's UNDERWORLD EVOLUTION (because the third film is a prequel), and no matter how strong and able Rhona Mitra was in RISE OF THE LYCANS, we still wanted Beckinsale. So in bringing back Beckinsale as Selene, there were few noticeable changes to the movie. First, the director is NOT Len Wiseman. Wiseman produces, but Swedish directing duo Marlind and Stein take charge of the action. Second, the action never lets up. This ought to be the most violent first ten minutes of an UNDERWORLD movie. There are lesser dialogue, and the vampire mythology is completely erased in favor of a storyline that focuses on humans' campaign against vampires and lycans. Bullets fly every three minutes or so, or if not, somebody's neck gets bitten, or broken. The filmmakers are not shy with the amount of onscreen blood, too. This was ...