a review by Peter Turner
Rated MA15+ : Running Time 88 minutes
In the twilight cloaked streets soldiers conduct a purge with fire and silver. The secret existence of vampires and lycan’s has been revealed to the world. Publicly denounced as an incurable plague they are hunted in a war of extermination.
When soldiers come for Selene (Kate Beckinsale), the strongest and, the last of the death dealers she chooses to flee and meet her lover Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) at the docks. Unfortunately their plans to evacuate are disrupted and they a both knocked out.
The majority of the movie occurs twelve years later when a child with unheard of powers, known only as Subject2 (India Eisley), release’s Selene from cryogenic sleep. Immediately she sets out to escape from the heavily fortified laboratories of ANTIGEN, the privately owned bio-tech firm with the monopoly on non-human testing and extermination, ran by head scientist Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea) and guarded by his loyal son Quint Lane (Kris Holden-Ried).
Aided by vampire rebel David (Theo James) and Detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy), Selene struggles amongst shoot-outs, road battles and looming monstrous lycans to reunite her family, unravel conspiracies and ultimately find their place in a brave new world.
The visual delivery of the Underworld films remains sleek and neo-gothic. The dark leather clad heroes remain in clear focus throughout despite the sinister setting. The modern flawless special effects provide for seamless terrifying transformations and the slightly science fiction elements scattered throughout the film.
The sound scape of the film is constructed in such a cunning way that it is barely noticeable just how little dialogue is in this movie. It seems almost as if the script exists purely to provide a excuse to move the action to a new location.
The fourth underworld film builds strongly on the previous films and ends leaving the viewer wanting more. Personally I enjoyed the non-stop fast paced action and didn’t mind too much that several scenes feel almost like the directors have drawn their inspiration very heavily from other films in this genre.
3.5 / 5 Stars
Watch this if you liked : Blade, Resident Evil, Daybreakers.
Directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein.
It is currently (at the time of writing) in both 3D and standard release
Watch for: Subject2 is named ‘Eve’ in the end credits.
Editor’s note: I found this in my download folder, another review that disappeared into the abyss, to be discovered when I started housekeeping. My apologies.