UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING, another sequel in the fantasy action series that pits vampires versus werewolves in a never-ending war, once again stars Kate Beckinsale as the death-dealing vampire Selene, who awakens in a world where humans are now hunting both vampires and werewolves.

The latest UNDERWORLD story begins with a massive creature-genocide as humans are hunting down vampires as well as werewolves, better known as lycans. Led by a group of scientists who are working to destroy the genetic infection that they believe exists in these species of creatures, the humans nearly eradicate every vampire and lycan in existence. Selene and her lover, a crossbreed of vampire and lycan, are captured by the scientists and cryogenically frozen in order for testing to be done.

Next, Selene awakens from stasis and escapes the lab where she’s being held. She discovers that it’s been 12 years since the great purge and her imprisonment in the lab. She also learns that the creature that freed her is a laboratory experiment, a crossbreed between herself and her lover – their daughter.

Selene flees with her daughter to the safety of a vampire coven hiding outside the city limits. Not long after they flee, the entire coven is targeted by a group of lycans, a group that’s stronger and more powerful than any lycans have ever been. Selene quickly learns that the scientists at the lab are actually lycans-in-hiding who have been experimenting with DNA for 12 years in order to strengthen their breed, making themselves impervious to silver and stronger than any vampire or human imaginable.

Now, Selene and her crossbreed daughter, along with a small band of vampires, must break into the science labs and destroy the lycans’ research before the werewolves become truly invincible.

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING doesn’t really offer anything more than the other movies in the UNDERWORLD series: plenty of blood, gore, violence, and occult worldview elements. Critically, the story stretches the bounds of its own believability and nearly breaks the rules of the world it has created, going so far as to give the vampire characters children and tearful emotions in several scenes – a big no-no in vampire lore, considering the creatures are not supposed to have a soul. The movie has a lot of graphic violence and contains some terrifying imagery of mortal characters transforming into their immortal counterparts. The movie also contains a lot of occult themes with regard to vampires and werewolves who demonically shift from one shape to another.

As MOVIEGUIDE(r) pointed out with our review of the last UNDERWORLD movie, vampirism has always been an intriguing theme in contemporary culture. Perhaps it is the idea that a blood covenant can cause immortality. It is, however, an illegitimate source of eternal life, a counterfeit salvation. Discerning Christians should keep in mind that it is not the sucking of blood that is the source of immortality; it is instead the shed blood of Jesus Christ that grants access to eternity.

With the excessive violence, gore, occult worldview and mild language, UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING is not media-wise fare for culture-wise families.