'Underworld' provides brutal thrill ride

Every year, the first quarter brings a plethora of sci-fi/fantasy action movies that constantly push the limit of what the human brain allows as acceptably stupid in a film. Only time will tell how "Chronicle" will turn out, but with the release of the fourth installment of the Underworld franchise, "Underworld: Awakening," 2012 has delivered its first dumb but incredibly fun success.

 Set after the events of the second film, "Underworld: Awakening" opens up with a military crackdown on all vampires and lycans, upon their existence becoming public knowledge. Selene (Kate Beckinsale), the vampire heroine of the first two films, attempts to flee this eradication of non-humans and reunite with her lycan lover but is ultimately beaten and captured by the pursuing humans. She awakens from cryogenic stasis to discover that she has been asleep for 12 years. Upon her awakening she seeks to discover the cause behind the purge of non-humans why the lycans have gone underground for 10 of the 12 years that she has been asleep.

The plot of "Underworld: Awakening" is extremely thin, at best. It exists sheerly as a means of moving things from action set piece to cool looking scenery and constantly borderlines on non-existent to flat-out ridiculous. It is pretty flimsy right from the start of the film, but as if it weren't ridiculous enough, it pulls a total left field twist that makes little to no sense and may have been one of the few points that pressed into the territory of too ridiculous, which is saying something considering the very premise of the film to begin with.

Fortunately, the movie makes no pretentions of being anything less. I highly doubt that anyone would go to a film called "Underworld: Awakening" for thought provoking writing, but the mythology and pathos offered by the film when it isn't setting up the next special effect is genuinely intriguing and never overstays its welcome. The film is about savage and brutal vampire on werewolf action, and the weak plot and dialogue never once intrude on that.

The action is the star of the show and it satisfies consistently. Unlike other films of its ilk like the "Resident Evil" series, all of the fights of "Underworld: Awakening" are actually well coordinated and well shot. The camera always captures everything onscreen clearly as it happens and the fight choreography is good bordering on inventive at certain points. Even when the film uses slow motion, it's never in a gratuitous manner, but rather to clarify action that would have been hard to discern otherwise.

It's really hard to fault "Underworld: Awakening" for what it does. The movie is unashamed of its own high budget B-movie status. The type of thing that "Underworld: Awakening" does is simply a love it or hate it affair; you'll either crucify it for its poor writing or turn your brain off and enjoy a viscerally satisfying, R-rated stunt show. For those that enjoy a little bit of dumb fun every now and then however, this is about as good as it gets. It's violently satisfying, pretty to look at and extremely well paced, making for one of the fastest hour and a half theater experiences that I've been through in recent history and a perfect Saturday matinee.