Underworld: Awakening

For some reason I've seen all these movies in the theater even though they've never quite delivered the way I thought they should. Kate Beckinsale is great and the action is awesome, but these movies have always managed to be watchable without being memorable. I enjoyed the first one a lot, but I think they built Scott Speedman's character up too much, because he's had no contribution to the sequels even though they insist on including him.

SPOILER COMING UP...

This installment insists on involving Speedman's character even though I don't think he's in the movie at all.  Brief glimpses of him at the beginning and end look like they were digitally created.

The story is kind of weak. It reminds me of "Ultraviolet", since it revolves around humans turning on vampires in their midst (sort of - in a lame twist this turns out to be a plot hatched by the lycans). It feels like any Milla movie, actually, with Beckinsale waking up naked in a lab and then having to ninja a bunch of bad guys to escape.

The movie is one exciting action sequence after another, but it'd make a better video game. The story doesn't really hold up under scrutiny and feels a little thrown together. The whole movie feels like an elaborate excuse to get Kate back in the suit. Even when she wakes up naked they have her outfit in a glass case for no reason.

It's not bad, but it's not particularly imaginative. I think the third installment may have been the best sequel just because it gave up on following the original story and just did a movie about vampires vs. werewolves in medieval times. I think I might rather see some more of that.

They could still make another of these, but if they do they need to find some new place for the characters to go instead of cooking up new ways to show Kate kicking people.