Kate Becksinsale is back in
the skin tight leather and PVC (Yaaay!), playing vampire hybrid Selene once more, in this fourth film in the
Underworld series. Set at some indeterminate point in the future, after the events of part 2 (remember that Part 3
was a prequel), humans have become aware of the vampires and lycans (werewolves) living amongst them and have been
waging a bloody war against them.
Whilst trying to escape the city with her partner Michael (played by a stunt double, as Scott Speedman was unavailable), the pair fall into a trap set by the authorities and are subsequently frozen in cryogenic suspension, and held at some secret government research facility, run by some evil scientist type named Dr Jacob Lane (played by British actor Steven Rea).
But when somebody thaws Selene out, the fun kicks off, as she promptly breaks out of the lab and goes on the war path against the people at the facility (cue lots of gun fights). Hooking up with a fellow vampire named David (Theo James), who is one of the last few survivors of their race, they find that Dr Lane has been doing more than just experimenting on her and Michael, and that a new Vampire/Lycan hybrid is in their midst.
But whilst the vampires may now be few in numbers, it seems the lycans are far from extinct and they clearly want something with Selene and the new hybrid. Aided by a sympathetic cop (Michael Ealy), they attempt to discover what's really going on at Dr Lane's lab, only to find out that a new vampire-lycan war is about to start.
Directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, this is a great, gothic action film, with some fantastic gun battles, and chase sequences. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it. Kate Beckinsale is fantastic as Selene and Stephen Rea is aptly cast as the sinister Dr Lane, as is Charles Dance, who plays the new vampire leader Thomas. I also really liked the way they captured the original gothic look from the first film again, which was strangely absent from part 2.
Sod those bloody awful "Twlilight" films, THIS is how you do a film with vampires and werewolves!
