Autant j'ai apprécié le premier (surtout pour les décors d'ailleurs)...

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Waste of time - awful.

Author: jonathan parker from United States
2 April 2012
 

I quite recently discovered the underworld franchise. Generally not that fond of the fantasy genre, I liked the first 3 movies because they had something fantasy movies often lack; a good story.

Watching this fourth episode I was very disappointed. No story, no twists and turns, just fighting without purpose. The characters are not developed and you feel totally emotionally disconnected to whats going on. There's not even a connection to the previous episodes.

My advice is: stay away from this movie. Watch the previous ones one more time or do something else.

This is completely waste of your time.

6 out of 12 people found the following review useful:

Why did Kate come back for this?

Author: oscarxp25 from United States
28 February 2012

There is an old saying that "money is the root of all evil". This statement is usually reserved for people involved with bribery, corruption, banking, and politics. Well, I am taking that statement and applying it to everyone involved in the making of this film. This movie was made to suck money from our pockets by people who don't care about a once worthy movie property. They destroy it.

The original "Underworld" was a fresh take on the centuries old rivalry between vampires and werewolves (called "lycans" here). It wasn't game changing cinema, but a movie with interesting characters, worthy performances, and slick action sequences. This movie, clocking in at a incredibly short 73 minutes, not only destroys, but turns its back on what once was a promising series. The second film was as good as the first. I did not see the third, but heard it was good. When people rip on "Twilight" for the terrible acting, the teenage girls now have a film to use as evidence to show it ain't that bad in Stephanie Meyer's universe. Everyone in this film is terrible; even Kate Beckinsale. Beckinsale, who was so good in the first two, is sleep walks though this film. I must give her some credit, at least she is better than the films terrible villains. The characters are lame, as are the actors playing them. They come off as laughable, not frightening or horrifying in anyway. The once cool designs of the Lycans have been replaced by rubber looking coyotes. Worst of all, there is not a single memorable action scene in the movie. It is just extremely boring to watch, considering all the gunfire going on.

Former director, now writer, Len Wiseman, tries to inject some emotion into the movie by creating a relationship between Beckinsale's character and a hybrid child created from her DNA. There is only so much you can do in the movie's short time span and given the amount the screen time these two have together, it doesn't work. It doesn't feel natural, only a cheap ploy to create some type of humanity in this action snooze fest.

Michael Sheen, who played a Lycon in the first three movies, wisely bowed out of this one. Beckinsale, I have no idea why she came back after walking away from the third one. My only guess is she got a pretty good amount of cash to reprise her role. The film does establish something; it is like its main character: empty, soul less and dead on arrival.

10 out of 21 people found the following review useful:

Same Old Predictable Story Line

Author: hidareitsme from Washington
5 February 2012

I can't believe how many times this same story will be told. It's like watching a cowboy beat a dead horse over and over again. At least change the stick that the cowboy is using, some creativity would be much welcomed in these movies that are coming out.

I'm starting to believe that their is only one or two people really writing and directing these movies. The creators that are so called creating these movies must have a set play book that they all use without variance. Boring, and too predictable.

My advice is not to waste your money on this dead horse movie, or the next ten sorry sequels to follow. Wait for something with some original and creative thinking involved with the movie.

Movies like these are just brain dead and sad.

18 out of 37 people found the following review useful:

Underworld - more like Underpants!!!

Author: dunctyler from United Kingdom
21 January 2012

This is a genuinely poor film - I now know why it wasn't released to the critics before going out on general release! It should have gone straight to DVD.

I can't believe the people that have scored this above 5 on this site. It is a really lame effort and everyone involved should hang their head in shame. The storyline could have been so much more - instead it is predictable (what there is of it!) and seems to be more of an advert for 3d rather than a effort at making a decent movie.

Oh, and who is KB married to.......ah yes, Len Wiseman!! Think this whole genre has scraped a new level - probably time for Ken to move onto pastures new. This Underworld hasn't 'awoken' - it's in a terminal slumber!!! Save your money and watch something else!

50 out of 101 people found the following review useful:

Thanks a lot

Author: Fmy Fmy from Turkey
15 February 2012

Really thanks a lot for the makers of this movie. Couldn't imagine more to ruin the reputation of a good trilogy. I think, even these modern video games' in game videos are far better than this movie.

There was no "oh what comes next?" question in my head. Just watched meaningless fights. You were getting excited while watching the fights in former series. There is no need to talk about characters who toss cars around like toys and can't even break the wall. Selene's and the werewolves final fight was really stupid. Selene who did unbelievable things just waited in the corner of the room like a cat. The big bad wolf was just tossing Selene around.

Even if I would consider this movie as not a sequel, it still would be an under average scored one.

Maybe it would be harsh but I would consider Underworld: Awakening in the same category of Twilight Saga for being a bad vampire&werewolf movie.

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

Another stab at rescuing a good idea, poorly implemented.

Author: edwardcking2001 from London, England
3 December 2013

The underworld series has a lot going for it....as STORIES.

The sad fact is that they put a malnourished female in a rubber suit and hoped that this would somehow overcome the most problematic issue with the underworld franchise: Kate Beckinsale simply cannot act.

Now, granted, I like the female form as much as the next person....but unlike some, I don't see it as a replacement for talent. Give me a fugly girl with amazing talent (or at the very least, simply does her job well) and I will pick her over a pretty moron EVERY TIME!

The fact that my wife is very sexy is coincidence; I was attracted to her brain first! But this single issue has absolutely RUINED the underworld saga. As a good example: compare the characters Lucian and Selene in the first Underworld: Michael sheen of course plays Lucian and he is absolutely outstanding in it. Kate Beckinsale on the other hand is so wooden that you really just want to see her naked for the sake of getting SOME entertainment value out of what you pay to see the movie; she really is that bad.

This movie is no exception. She fell into a formula requiring little or no effort on her part and leaving us with a character that may as well have been a bit part.

Despite valiant efforts by the other actors, unfortunately Beckinsale makes this a non-starter and it is therefore utterly deserving of the 1 star rating.

1 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

I Thought Perhaps This was a Joke

Author: ambercatgoddess-484-733898 from Plymouth UK
22 February 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I have faithfully watched all of the movies in this series. Up until this movie I had been pretty happy with everything involved. The characters were done well. Very well in fact and the creation of the creatures was also equally well done. The stories made sense and I could quite easily put myself into the movies and be content.

Then I watched this. I hesitate to call it a movie as it honestly does little justice to the word and implication *movie*. I sat in shock through the first twenty minutes looking at my husband and asking him. *Is this a joke?* he just looked back and shook his head. But I decided to watch the whole movie to be sure.

Here you have a two distinct cultures of secretive beings. Yet we are to believe that human beings could so easily infiltrate their defenses, safe houses, hideouts etc? We are to believe that they are outsmarted by humans? Seriously? I did not buy this at all.

This was such a pile of trash that I like to believe that underworld ended at the third film.That is where I will chose to believe that it ended and try to erase this from my mind.

The storyline of this movie is complete and utter crap. The people that produced it should issues an apology to everyone. They should also issue a refund of the tickets. Perhaps other people hold to different standards but this was not worth the watch in any way at all.

To think they spent $70,000,000 ,making this ?? What a complete waste of money. Please do not make another one.

2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Dreadful

Author: Toby Macdonnell from United Kingdom
28 April 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Shockingly poor script with no imaginative dialogue! Poor CGI for 2012 and absolutely nothing original or at all interesting about this film! Thoroughly predictable, limited plot. It was basically Kate Beckinsale randomly emptying a seemingly limitless amount of ammo into werewolves that had varying degrees of morbidity. The so-called "super werewolf" did nothing more than bat Selene around, when clearly all he needed to do was snap her neck. Best scene in the film? A good shot of Kate Beckinsale's arse after throwing a grenade down an air vent. Worst scene? Pretty much the rest of it! In all honestly this film doesn't deserve 10 lines of bad review!

Hollywood! Please stop wasting money on such rubbish!

2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Disappointing..

Author: Andrew . from Brazil
17 April 2012

I like movies about vampires and werewolves. But I cannot enjoy this franchise of "underworld". The vampires are boring. Even the wolves are boring. I expect so much from this franchise and it keeps failing me. I wanted to see scary werewolves, mean and blood-thirsty vampires, real beasts.. Unfortunately I see a movie with a tendency to tell the story from a point of view of the vampires. "Noble" vampires.. and half of the movie is wasted with " scary faces" as if they could showcase the real "beasts" they are.. All in all is just boring.. The "monsters" in this movie do not surprise anyone. They are terribly common and weak.. Poor portraits of what imagination could provide. Everything revolves around the character of Kate Beckinsale ( pretty worn out in my opinion ) and there are no characters you can really think: "This one is a real bad ass".. In a vampire and werewolf movie this is such a downer..

9 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

A nausea-inducing experience

Author: fxbgrd from United Kingdom
29 January 2012

It pains me to give any Underworld film such a low rating (especially that I gave the last one, Rise of the Lycans (2009), a 10 out of 10) but I couldn't help feeling entirely disappointed last night as I walked out of the cinema.

Before I go into why I thought the film was such a waste of my money and time, allow me to highlight some positive aspects of the film. Kate Beckingsale's performance as Selene was superb. And beautifully choreographed fight scenes were truly spectacular. Also, it must be said that there were some good ideas in the storyline - it's just a shame that they were not adequately developed. That said, I have little else to add by way of praising it, despite my best efforts to be a generous critic of the film, given that I am a loyal fan of the Underworld films.

First of all, the 3D format. There were moments in the cinema theatre where I genuinely thought I'd be sick and would have to leave the theatre mid way through watching the film. But I was so determined to convince myself that this film would be superb, so I persevered. As I went on desperately trying to enjoy the film, I found myself thinking: 'Oh, and now it looks as if Selene's pistol is exiting the screen'; 'Here they've tried to make it look as if the Lycan is jumping out of the screen to attack me, but not entirely convincingly'; 'Oh look! A shard of exploding glass flying out of the screen right at me!' All of this 3D stuff did little to "add" to my cinema experience; in fact, it "detracted" much from it. My audio visual senses were so overwhelmed that I struggled not to be sick and to try hard to focus on what's going on in the film. Additionally, the 3D seemed to actually be quite distracting when one's trying to figure out what's going on in the fight scenes, but just keeps getting distracted by debris flying out of the screen and losing focus. So now the mind has to work double hard to get a grip and regain visual focus - 'Where was I, again?' I kept trying hard to pull myself back into the film. So much for "adding to my film-watching experience"! It in fact left me mentally drained, nauseous, confused, my senses overwhelmed, and - most importantly - it seemed a very poor excuse for a bad/bland story line, which brings me to my next point.

I don't want to add spoilers so I'll refrain from going into detail, but suffice to say that I can write the whole story of Underworld Awakening on the back of a cigarette packet without much loss to content. This is due to the fact that not much happens in the story, really - plenty of action, and mind-bending, nausea-inducing 3D, yes; but don't expect much else. The story line in Underworld Awakening - contrary to the sophisticated one in Rise of the Lycans - is truly yawn-inspiring. Every story has a beginning, middle and end. The story in this film finished somewhere around the middle by the time the credits rolled. Needless to say, it was such an anti-climax.

And now, onto the characters. Not only is Selene the only character from the other Underworld films and the rest all new (if done tastefully, this needn't be anything negative in and of itself) but the sidekick characters we so flat and two dimensional that it left me wondering why the film-makers hadn't spent half the time and energy writing rich, 3D characters than focusing on 3D visual effects. Not only were the characters - other than Selene's - so flat and rigid that they failed to draw you in, but some of the acting was truly awful. There were also times where their lines were so obviously bad that I had to feel bad for the actors playing these roles. At other times however, I kept wondering why an actor had a frozen expression with no emotions on display when the lines demanded the opposite - the actors and their lines didn't seem to be in sync for much of the film, making their performances poor and the script utterly amateurish. Again, the characters, lines and acting in Underworld Awakening stand in the very opposite (bad) end of the quality spectrum when compared with the well performed and well-written characters of Rise of the Lycan.

All I can say is that I lament the time and money I spent going to the cinema watching Underworld Awakening 3D. Not only has it put me off watching any 3D film, but it left me angry thinking how could a superb film such as Rise of the Lycans be followed by this!