UNDERWORLD 4: AWAKENING (2012)

(Directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein)

"The franchise has finally collapsed!"- Signed by MartialHorror.

 

Plot: The war between vampires and lycans is interrupted when humans discover their existence and seek to purge them. Selene wakes up after being comatose for 12 years in a human laboratory and discovers she has a daughter, whom both the Lycans and Humans want for mysterious reasons.

Review:

I've never been a big fan of the “Underworld” franchise, although I do respect the first film for various reasons. It is one of the few films of its ilk to try to focus more on the story, flesh out its characters and allow its style to add to the proceedings without distracting us from what is important about the film. But for purely subjective reasons, it never connected to me and I was rather indifferent to it. “Underworld 2” lacked a story and the characterizations were thin, but it did provide some slick action sequences and a few parts were even sort of suspenseful and scary. But “Underworld 3” was painfully mediocre and cemented how lukewarm I was about this films. So I expected nothing from “Underworld 4”. It adding humans into the mix was nothing new. They already did that in “Blade 3”, and the futuristic vampire movie idea had already been done in "Daybreakers". The concept of a hybrid daughter didn't add anything as we already saw what a hybrid could do in the first two films. Even some of the action appeared to be lifted from “Resident Evil: Afterlife”. The only thing that really intrigued me was that Lycanzilla monster. That looked pretty epic. My expectations remained low and unfortunately, "Underworld 4" met those expectations. 

The first opens with one of those lazy recaps that should never be in any movie- unless it was made before the VHS era- where they explain what happened in the previous movies. Anyway, vampires and Lycans (werewolves) have been at war for centuries, but badass vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) fell in love with Michael, the first vampire/lycan hybrid. After we re-learn of the events of the first two films (part 3 was a prequel), we learn that humans discovered their existence and purged both lycans and vampires. Michael is apparently killed during an attack and Selene is rendered comatose. She wakes up 12 years later to discover that their species is nearly extinct. She escapes her lab and learns she has a daughter who is called Subject 2 (soon to be Eve; played by India Eisley). The surviving Lycans and humans want the girl for mysterious reasons, so Selene has to protect her.

 

“Underworld 4” had four different screenwriters and one could almost see how those meetings went. With an approved $70,000,000 budget, they had more resources than ever to deliver a good movie. The problem? They had no real story. I'm sure Len Wiseman was initially excited about the project as it meant he could explore new territory. However, when it came down to actually writing the thing, nobody apparently knew what they wanted to do with it. One writer may have shyly suggested that they have the humans enter the war. The idea likely was met with lukewarm approval.

Humans entering the War: It sounds like a decent idea. Many reviewers even said this was the smart thing to do. But is it really that great? Vampires in this franchise are just super strong humans, so I don't see what the fuss is about. Now maybe if they brought in zombies, cyborgs or Frankenstein, that at least would be new. But “Blade 3” used that idea already, so no points for originality there. But even accepting it, the human angle is very underused. While yes, humans getting involved in the war is the basic set up, it's not really followed through. Once they escape the lab, it's pretty much 'vampire vs lycans' once again.

 

Another writer probably mumbled something about the film taking place in the future.

The Setting: Of all the ideas, this was probably the most promising. After all, “Underworld 3” took place in the past, so why not move ahead and make a futuristic vampire movie. Well, apparently Len Wiseman shot that down because it probably cost too much. Indeed, despite the trailers suggesting otherwise, the near future looks...pretty much like the present. There is a line where Selene says that she no longer knows this world, but why not? Outside of the lab everything looked the same to me. There aren't any floating cars, laser guns or space ships. Why did they have to make a big deal about the setting? IT HASN'T CHANGED AT ALL! So that is another underused concept.

So two ideas were toyed with but ultimately the writers had no real enthusiasm for them because they do nothing with him. Becoming more desperate, somebody pitched something that actually turned out to be the best thing about the movie. What if there was a giant lycan? This presumably would've been well received by the group, although everyone acknowledged that it would probably be reserved for the climax.

Lycanzilla: Actually, I have no real complaint here. Lycanzilla was made of pretty good CGI and it's sequences were the only really good action sequences.

But while there were ideas, some that perhaps vaguely effected the premise, there was still no story. Just a generic setting and a potentially cool ending. Then somebody, probably one of the lesser writers, thought that there needed to be a daughter. Because you know, annoying kids is what all sequels need. I'd like to think that Wiseman dragged him outside to be shot- or if he was the offending writer, punch himself in the face- but more than likely everyone agreed because there was nothing else better to do.

The daughter: The big revelation here is that the daughter is a hybrid, much like her Daddy Michael. Unfortunately, what's the surprise? We've already seen the hybrid in the first two films. By this point, it's nothing cool, especially as the hybrid doesn't get to fight Lycanzilla. Instead we are forced to endure the films most unintentionally funny moments. The hybrid transformation looks awful and the girls shrieking and growling is hilarious, only matched by her crap attempts at delivering one-liners. We also have to endure the films desperate attempts at drama. Selene looks at daughter, daughter responds with corny dialogue, Selene cries and swears to protect her and that is the extent of their relationship. The film is more interested in action than its characters, which was what the original film worked hard not to do. But the film continuously begs us to care for them and what's going on. I didn't, because the film never gave me any good reason too.

There might be a few more inspired ideas thrown in there. Those silver filled grenades were kinda cool (or were those used before?) and I did sort of like the twist at the end involving the Lycans, but when the few ideas only fill up a few scenes at best, that doesn't help your story. Realizing they had only about 20-30 minutes worth of material, they likely resorted to the great book of cliches. Hey, why don't we have a cop who shows up from time to time, sort of helps out at the end but whose only real importance is one scene of exposition? Plus, it means there will be a good human for us to root for! Ironically, despite being the most pointless character, he is the only one who gets any time to be fleshed out. They also probably figured they might as well throw in some male vampire who can show up to help. But it seems like there are a lot of scenes that lead nowhere. Like Fake Peter Cushing's (that's who he looked like to me; I refer to the old vampire) creepy, unintentionally pedophilia-esque scene with the daughter. It didn't add anything to what we already knew and they build that character up to where we think he'll show up at the end or do something relevant, but he doesn't. Finally, was it just me or did the film occasionally portray Selene as the villain. She goes too far in terms of who she kills at times, but apparently we're never supposed to feel that way. Now that would've been an intriguing idea.

So the writers, defeated, write up a script none of them care about at this point. They give it to the directors, whom I like to think took a look at it and said “this is 20 pages of script! 70 pages say “insert action scene” here! The hell am I supposed to do with this?!” but probably just smiled and accepted it because nobody knows who they are. So how do they do? Well, better than the writers did, but only by a bit. To their credit, they do recapture the tone of the previous films. Now granted, using blue filters isn't that difficult to do, but it's something. There are even a few good shots and I liked the buildup to Lycanzilla. But beyond that, there's something really awkward about certain scenes. From the recap, to the fake Scott Speedman scenes (Speedman either turned it down or people cut corners to avoid paying him) to the laboratory escape, to...everything else. Scenes that are supposed to be edgy or intense end up being limp or embarrassing. I especially noticed this with the transformation sequences. Had Wiseman, a marginally talented director, took the helm instead I think he would've known how to make these scenes work. I believe that the directors struggled when it came to handling the actors. The acting in itself isn't bad (Beckinsale does pretty good), but a lot of their actions or movements during their more bestial scenes look overblown and weird. Strange how the little things can effect someone, but stuff like that really bugged me.

But most importantly, what about the action? A few people have criticized the detractors, stating that they were taking it too seriously. First off, most action movies need to have us care about the characters and what they are doing. But I did enjoy “Resident Evil: Afterlife”, so that's not a necessity either. But honestly, the only movies that can get away with “you can't take it so seriously” are films like “Alien Vs Ninja”. Maybe throwbacks to a less than respectable genre like “Black Dynamite” or “Hobo With a Shotgun” can survive those claims too, but that's because they are intentionally bad. The “Underworld” movies DID take themselves seriously, so if this one broke that trend, that makes it worse as it's betraying its fanbase. But the action is just too tightly edited, the lighting is too dim and the camera is too close. The fight scenes, while happening often, are usually incomprehensible! Some viewers apparently disagree. I don't mind that. I love “The Expendables” and many used these same criticisms against that. So there is no 'final say' here. I also didn't like how the directors combined CGI and practical effects. I liked the practical effects but with the exception of Lycanzilla, the CGI in this film is pretty awful. To me, you should go one way or the other. When bad CGI is placed next to a good practical effect, it makes the badness stand out more. So the action just didn't work for me. With that said, liking the action to this film is the key to enjoying the movie as a whole.

“Underworld 4: Awakening” was just a bad experience for me. It has a shallow script that doesn't use any of its ideas effectively, drains all of the life from its characters and half of the shit that happens feels unnecessary. The films aesthetics can be summed up as “what you've seen before, but with crappier CGI”, which makes me wonder where the hell the budget went. I didn't like this movie. I didn't like it's look, it's story or its action scenes. Much like how the “Resident Evil” franchise almost ceased being actual movies and instead became CGI, action demo reels, “Underworld 4: Awakening” lost everything that made the previous films tolerable. My guess is that Len Wiseman no longer cares about the franchise and if he continues to make these movies it's only because he wants more money. He has no idea what he wants to do with it and is probably more interested in his upcoming projects like the “Total Recall” remake. Regardless, "Underworld 4" blows and that's all there is too it.

Violence: Rated R worthy. It does have some startlingly graphic moments, but the CGI kinda ruins it.

Nudity: Beckinsale gets naked early on, but everything is strategically placed to cover her up.

Overall: “Underworld 4: Awakening” is a bad movie, but fans of the trilogy might as well endure it because it does have its fans.

1.5/4 Stars