My Review: Underworld Awakening (5/10)

¨For 12 years, I was held captive by the humans. The world I once knew has changed. Vampires and Lycans are now the hunted.¨

This is the fourth film in the Underworld franchise and this time Kate Beckinsale is back in the lead role after Rhona Mitra starred in the third one alongside Michael Sheen (which served as a prequel to the original film). If you`ve seen the other films then you probably know what to expect here because it is kind of the same thing: a lot of action and very little dialogue with voice over narration from Selene who lets us know everything that is happening. The first film of the franchise felt fresh and original, but these sequels have to stop because they seem to be repeating themselves with each movie. This time Awakening was directed by the Swedish duo Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein who have directed other Swedish films together in the past. There were about four screenwriters involved with the script and I really don`t see why because there is hardly no story in this film, it focuses almost entirely on the action and there is really very little character development. Fans who are expecting to see a lot of action and eye candy will be satisfied with Kate`s performance, but if you were looking for some more depth and more interesting characters then you will be disappointed with this fourth installment. The action is almost nonstop and the film is under 90 minutes long so time does go by pretty fast. If you are satisfied with good visuals then you might enjoy this film, but don`t go into it expecting much more.

This fourth installment follows the similar premise where you have the lycans facing off against the vampires, except only this time both sides are being hunted by humans who are trying to exterminate them. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) narrates what is happening while she plans to meet up with Michael and escape with him, but they are ambushed by humans and a grenade goes off. Everything blacks out and we see Selene frozen inside a lab when someone seems to be freeing her. Selene wakes up and realizes she is in the Antigen laboratory run by Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea) and manages to escape from all the security. Once free she tries to figure out what happened before the explosion went off and realizes that 12 years have gone by while she was kept frozen in the lab. She begins to look for Micheal, believing he was the one that freed her since she seems to be seeing his visions. While she is on the run some humans are after her, and so are some lycans. She runs into another vampire named David (Theo James) who helps her search for Micheal. Soon they realize that those visions Selene is having aren`t from Micheal, but from someone else who is connected to her.

The entire movie moves at a really fast pace focusing mostly on the action and visual effects. Kate Beckinsale knows her part by memory and can do those tricks with her eyes closed. She is quite impressive on screen and really kicks some lycan butt. The rest of the cast really don`t add anything new to the movie since there is barely any character development. What we have instead are 88 minutes of nonstop action. Other supporting actors in this film are Michael Ealy, India Eisley, Charles Dance, and Kris Holden-Ried. None of them really shine on screen, but they don’t have to because Underworld Awakening is all about the action and seeing Beckinsale kill off as many lycans as possible. She does her job and if the viewer is satisfied with that then they will have a great time with this film, if not I would recommend you skip this movie because it has no other value than the well choreographed fighting scenes.

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My Review: Takers (4/10)

¨We`re takers, gents. That’s what we do for a living. We take.¨

There is a scene in Takers where a group of sophisticated criminals have just successfully finished robbing a bank and are walking away in style from an exploding helicopter. This scene can summarize what I thought about the movie: Very stylish and cool looking, but very poor in content, story, and acting. The cast seems entirely focused on trying to look cool and outshine one another, but none of them are actually worried about giving a decent and realistic portrayal of their characters. They may act tough and cool, but they’re all two dimensional. The script is bad, but I wouldn’t blame the acting entirely on that because the truth of the matter is that most these actors can´t act even if they were given an Oscar winning screenplay. Director John Lussenhop also collaborated with the screenplay along with Peter Allen and Gabriel Casseus, and the truth of the matter is that there are several plot holes. There was however some interesting action sequences, like a foot chase around New York City involving Chris Brown and Matt Dillon which had some really cool stunt work. Some viewers might be hypnotized by the look and style of the film because the visuals are actually pretty decent, but I really couldn’t get around the poor plot and acting. Zoe Saldana is probably one of the best actresses in the film and she doesn´t even get hardly any screen time. Some of the other characters in the film seem to have served no purpose at all (Naomi for example).

John Rahway (Paul Walker), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), brothers Jesse (Michael Ealy) and Jack Attica (Chris Brown), and Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba) are part of a five man team of bank robbers who successfully completed their latest heist after a spectacular and calculated escape involving a News Station helicopter. They are sophisticated criminals who enjoy a life of luxury; they have big houses, drive Range Rovers, and wear stylish clothes. Their comfortable lives come to an end when a former member of the team, known as Ghost (Tip T.I. Harris) is released from jail that very day and shows up with a new plan for a heist involving two armored trucks and twenty million dollars. The problem is that they don’t have much time to plan for the job and they don’t know if they can really trust Ghost. Jack´s girlfriend, Lilly (Zoe Saldana), used to be Ghost`s former love interest so Jack really doesn’t want to accept the job, but there is a lot of money involved so they accept. The other problem the team has to deal with is that police officer Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his partner Eddie (Jay Hernandez) are closely behind their backs linking several pieces of evidence against them. Jack has to deal with some trouble of his own due to the fact that his obsession with his job has pushed him away from his daughter, and Eddie has been accused of stealing some evidence money. Sooner or later the paths of these criminals will cross with those of Officer Welles.

My main issue with this film was the acting. T.I. is a terrible actor. His performance as Ghost is just nauseating. Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen aren’t really known for their acting skills although they do have some charisma. In this film with everything that is going on they don’t have much screen time for us to sympathize with their characters. Idris Elba gives a decent performance, but his whole relationship with his drug addict sister is pointless if you ask me. I know that she is the reason why Welles becomes suspicious of Gordon, but they could have done without that entire story. Zoe Saldana`s character is also misused and actually pointless in this film. The one memorable moment for me was the scene where we get to see Chris Brown in action trying to escape from the police. The stunt work was great. The rest of the film is pretty much forgettable although I can’t deny being seduced by some of the camera work. The look of the film was great, but the content was just not there at all. I was actually disappointed with Takers, it could have been so much better because it did have some interesting moments, but the pieces just didn’t seem to fit together. I wouldn’t recommend this movie, there are other more interesting and smart heist thrillers out there.

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