We love Underworld—and, most importantly, we love Kate Beckinsale as the vinyl-clad, ass-kicking, beautiful vampire Selene. So we were happy to hear there would be another film in the franchise. But the release of the plot synopsis (and to a lesser degree the title) has us a bit ... underwhelmed.
The fourth entry in the franchise is to be called Underworld: New Dawn. Nothing wrong with that—except for reminding us uncomfortably of Twilight: Breaking Dawn. But combined with the plot, it looks like we may be staring at an attempt to reboot the franchise.
Here's the synopsis Bloody Disgusting dug up:
"After being held in a coma-like state for fifteen years, vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) learns that she has a fourteen-year-old vampire/Lycan hybrid daughter, Nissa, and when she finds her they must stop BioCom from creating super Lycans that will kill them all."
Which has us asking the question: Why the need to bring in a daughter? We have a feeling the move is aimed at trying to attract the mostly teenaged Twilight fan base.
The idea that vampires can actually have children was established as early as the first Underwoldfilm, when we learned that Victor's (Bill Nighy) beloved daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra) became pregnant with the werewolf Lucian's (Michael Sheen) child—a tale that was ultimately told in the last film of the franchise, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. So we can buy the fact that Selene and Michael had a child.
But that in turn leads us to ask about Michael. No mention is made of the super werewolf/vampire hybrid character played by Scott Speedman in both Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, which makes us wonder if he will appear in New Dawn at all, or if he does, if it will only be in a diminished capacity. As much as we love Selene, that would definitely ... suck. Michael is a cool character, and we want more of him, along with Selene.
And, last but not least, the idea of creating super Lycans through an obviously evil bio company is nothing new and feels rehashed. We would rather have more of the vampire mythos, and a strong continuation of the Selene/Michael storyline. We're still hoping it may happen, but somehow we have a bad feeling that it won't. But who knows? We're keeping our fingers crossed.
What do you think of all this? Do you like the addition of a daughter for Selene in the Underworldfranchise? What do you think of the storyline?
Posts
