Category: Good

Messages and Meaning

Underworld: Awakening offers some good ideas, but fails to develop them sufficiently.

The film opens with the premise that werewolves and vampires have been exposed to the world, and now humans have a new enemy on whom to direct their aggression. This raises the question of how they managed to remain hidden until now, given that even in the first film we see public shootouts in the subway and vampire killings in front of witnesses – and likely cameras. But even if we set aside the technical details, this premise goes nowhere. Humans don’t play a role in the film, and the plot twist is that the vampires’ enemy remains the same – werewolves.

Selene’s twelve-year coma is an intriguing idea that’s executed rather clumsily. Throughout it all, she processes what happened as a human would, but from the perspective of a centuries-old vampire, twelve years of sleep is nothing special. The series generally skips over the period between Selene’s human life and her current one, which is strange, given that the character has lived for hundreds of years and learning something about that time would have enriched her character.

The decision to have Celine have a daughter is… quite controversial. On the one hand, it’s too cliché for the sequel to focus on the main character’s child. On the other hand, purely emotionally, replacing Michael with Eve lowers the stakes and saps the energy. Celine and Michael are the main love story. Each of them has their own individual journey, and their struggle against the system is what we’re invested in. Turning this into a family drama about a mother and daughter searching for the father is pretty silly. The film fails to develop this theme, and the relationship between Celine and Eve remains forced right up to the very end.

Plot

The plot of Underworld: Awakening has a terrible premise, but within that framework, it manages to cobble together a decent storyline. The action is top-notch, and overall, the film is visually satisfying and finds a way to immerse us in its vintage aesthetic even in modern times.

Why there’s a human cop in the plot isn’t clear. But since we’ve already made a bad decision, at least it’s executed decently. Why we’re dealing with Selene’s child isn’t clear. But at least it doesn’t get in the way of the whole movie too much. Why we’re trying to pretend the plot is about a war with humans when it’s really about werewolf and vampire mutations isn’t clear. But at least the pretense doesn’t take over the whole movie.

Celine continues to polarize opinions within the vampire community and once again finds herself in the position of – I’m saving a hybrid and I need the help of a skeptical patriarch. Again, the execution of this plot isn’t bad, but it’s nothing new either.

The ending is nice, but unfortunately it concludes with the promise of an exciting sequel with Michael, which never comes.

Characters

Celine – The plot doesn’t offer Celine much room to grow. We do get to see some new aspects of her abilities, but beyond that, the character is placed in situations that don’t allow for personal growth.

David – Not a bad character, who has potential for development and has a good sense of whom to be loyal to.

Thomas – Thomas is intentionally reminiscent of Victor, but with the difference that he makes the right decisions and cares for his child.

Important details

The idea of seeing through someone else’s eyes is wonderful. But seeing through Michael’s eyes, as we initially imagine, would have been much more interesting. And since neither of them ever sees anything interesting, the idea goes nowhere.

The scene where David reveals himself as a vampire to Celine is exceptionally silly. First, he waits too long, and second, can a vampire really not recognize another without having to see his transformed eyes?

There’s a certain weight to the scene where Celine revives David. It’s an interesting motif, stylistically satisfying, and it’s well shown that Celine achieves the impossible up to that point, revealing her evolution.

The battles with the giant werewolf are very good. They’re always visually striking, and we can clearly see that Selene wins because of her ability to exploit her opponent’s weaknesses, not just because of brute force.