Kate Beckinsale, fully armed and leather-clad, returns for her third major contribution to the “Underworld” saga, “Underworld: Awakening.” She takes up the character Selene’s death-dealer mantle once again after a gap of six years from the release of “Underworld: Evolution.” Both the writer and director of the series have been replaced during the interim. Perhaps this explains why this newest installment feels less like a continuation and more akin to an alternate timeline.
The newest film occurs over a decade after the event of “Evolution.” Humanity has discovered that ravening wolf-men and gun-slinging blood-suckers are in fact more than indulgent fantasies (finally?). The response is predictable. Those of a more advanced species are systematically hunted down and destroyed. Selene, after being captured, has not been destroyed and instead been kept in hibernation within a thinly-regulated government-independent scientific corporation. Needless to say, she finds herself escaping and spends the rest of the movie frantically searching for her more advanced hybrid lover (who ironically always seems to be the one in need of rescue). The twist is that the one responsible for breaking her out is her own daughter, known only as “Subject 2.”
The introduction of a daughter could have been an opportunity to deepen Selene’s character as she wrestles with learning how to nurture someone weaker than herself. And though there is at least one touching scene of vulnerability between them, the almost non-stop blitz of carnage restricted both character and narrative development. The violence in the film, taken as its own element, is superbly choreographed and seems like something out of a Tarantino film at times. However, one does yearn for the resurrection of a vampire character with the cruel aristocratic hauteur of Viktor (played by Bill Nighy). The pseudo-replacement for a male vampire protagonist lacks both the presence or the significance for an audience to care. But don’t get me wrong, ladies, I’m sure you’ll still find Theo James quite a looker.
The film lacks the most thoughtful and human questions of its predecessors. Once again, the “Vampires-Good, Lycans-Evil” dichotomy is thoughtlessly accepted. Even more disturbing is that at the end of the movie you get the sense that it would be better for Kate Beckinsale to kill all the humans and allow vampires to subjugate the earth. The tragic sense of losing one’s humanity which was characteristic of “Evolution” is here completely forgotten and/or discarded. So, ultimately my advice is, if you are already a fan, or would just like to see some vampires who are not tainted by the sentimentality of the “Twilight” franchise you cannot afford to miss out on “Underworld: Awakening.”
Mowry defines sacred music as any music written for the church, with scriptural text.
Holy Trinity’s Choir, community members, college students and Hillsdale Academy students all take part in the choir. The choir has held practices on Thursday nights for the past month.
Amanda Gehrke, a senior at Hillsdale Academy, sings both alto and tenor parts in the concert.
“It’s helped me learn about music because it is more difficult than the Academy choir. It is a more mature sound,” Gehrke said.
The chapel, though older and smaller, was built with acoustics in mind, Mowry said.
“The music sounds so good because of the acoustics,” Mowry said. “It is music for the soul.”
The chapel seats 70 people, and for the past five years the chapel has been full.
“We will be done before the CCA!” Mowry said, encouraging college students to attend the concert.
eepperson@hillsdale.edu
