Underwold Underwhelms

When Selene, played with sexy panache by Kate Beckinsale, uttered the words “The war had all but ground to a halt in the blink of an eye.” Whispered in her full-mouthed British pout she flung herself off the precipice of an indescribably tall tower and she dropped into a dark rainy night descending what seemed like hundreds of feet to the earth below. So began one of the most memorable opening scenes of movie making in the last decade-and-a-half. A sequence so startling it stays in your mind like the site of that massive Star Destroyer obliterating the screen chasing Princess Lea’s shuttle at the beginning of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Under the helm of writer Kevin Grevioux and director Len Wisemen, Underworld transformed our imaginations and began a new zeitgeist for vampires and werewolves while turning Ms. Beckinsale into a slinking action star. In that original movie you had intrigue, scandal and sex constricted by violence into a serpentine plot. It was a bloody and glamorous melodrama funneled through the mind of Len Wiseman as if he were Douglas Sirk making a vampire movie. Seriously. Unfortunately that was 9-years and two movies ago and now the franchise has devolved into a derivative version of its former glory.

The movie starts off with Selene—Ms. Beckinsale reprising her role after missing the third installment, the vampire Death Dealer, as she and her beloved Michael, the only human-vampire-werewolf hybrid to ever exist, try to escape capture at the hands of humanity. The Vampire-Lycan (werewolf) war has been exposed and humans are out en masse searching for all non-humans and destroying them, erroneously thinking vampirism and werewolfism were some kind of disease or plague. Selene and Michael are captured. Fast forward a dozen years later and the first of many sci-fi staple rip-offs begins. Selene is in no better mood waking up confused than Sigourney Weaver's cloned Ripely in Aliens: Resurrection. In this future vampires and werewolves are all but extinct. Hidden in the bowels of a genetic laboratory run by Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea) is the secret to mankind’s salvation from monsters. Or so mankind has been told. Its seems that a mysterious young girl named Eve (India Eisely) --who by the way is this movie's Newt--holds the key to the Vampire’s salvation and Selene must protect her at all cost.

Directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein have created a reductive stew that blends the major uhs and ahs of special effect and wire-work wizardry with none of the original movie's excitement or innovation. They blow their wads in the first action sequence (actually the second sequence but the many in this movie are so tedious they start looking and feeling a like) when we see Selene breaking out of the genetic's lab. A well meaning Detective Sebastian has the case of finding the culprits who caused the destruction and subsequent murders of several people dropped into his lap. He knows that vampires still exist even though they remain hidden from view. A young vampire warrior named David comes to Selene's aid. He wants to return the vampiric covens to their former glories as masters of the world but his father is conflicted. Selene is tasked with protecting young Eve no matter what and soon the Lycans make a decidedly massive comeback and all sorts of ill-time gory shenanigans follow.

Underworld: Awakening is a beautiful movie to watch. Sweeping atmospheric eastern European landscapes, brooding rain, industrial and austere looking buildings give the movie a sense that it is about to implode and collapse in on you. The special effects are more CGI related in this one but all of it is a retread of the 3 previous movies. Ms. Beckinsale delivers on her sexy violence. She plays Selene straightforward. She tries to bring a certain freshness, urgency and emotional range to a character she's playing for the third time. I appreciate that but at the end of the day its still a hot girl with a milky completion, un-dialated colored contacts with fangs and an automatic weapon. There's only but so much that can be done that hasn't been in her 2 previous iterations of this character. Michael Ealy who plays the haunted detective (his wife died of the plague) looks equally as good given his flaccid character's dialogue. He's a by-the-numbers sidekick, torn between what's his duty and what's right. He goes through the movie with his signature frown-pout that is his all-purpose emotion when he's given nothing to work with. There are a few staid sub-plots between David (Theo James) and his father. Interestingly enough the only real emotion or fun I feel comes from the older actors: Stephen Rea and Charles Dance who plays Thomas, David's vampire father. Mr. Rea takes his character at face value. This gives his performance some heft but it doesn't come across as pretentious.

I was surprised at the dull and fallow script. Mr. Wiseman who wrote the story has been with this franchise since the first movie and should have been savvy enough to know what his legion of fans want to see. And if not the Hugo winning J. Michael Straczynski, the creator and writer behind Babylon 5, should have known how to produce strong character driven movies with powerful narratives. He did it for 5-years on one of Sci-Fi's greatest soap operas. What spoiled Underworld: Awakening was a lack of imagination. The filmmakers didn't think they needed to propel characters into new directions. They thought we lacked that imagination to follow them in new directions. Ultimately this made for an ending that begged for a sequel and that angered me. I must say this last instalement of Underworld indeed has awaken me and I won't be following this franchise into another darkened theater again.

Red Tails: This movie didn't fly

George Lucas’ controversial new movie Red Tails comes with a pretty impressive pedigree. Adapted from John B. Holway’s novel of the same name; Red Tails is the story of heroic African American pilots that battled discrimination and Nazis in a segregated all black unit during World War II. The movie sports an Oscar winner, 2 Oscar nominees, a relatively hefty budget for a January release with a predominantly black cast and George Lucas, the Godfather of the modern event movie (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and the creator of Industrial Light and Magic, the go-to Gods of special effects. Putting aside the racial vitriol that ignited the blogosphere that rendered the necessity for an advertisement budget to zero; George Lucas, executive producer, famously accused the Hollywood machine of not wanting to fund a black movie. My fear at the time was that Lucas’ words were a ruse used to garnish a robust first weekend in ticket sales because the makers of the film knew they had produced a clunker. Unfortunately after seeing Red Tails my fears were borne out.

The plot revolves around a group of fighter pilots, trained at Tuskegee University to be brave sky-warriors at a time when blacks were seen as not only lacking the acumen, capacity, skill or courage for flying planes but were deemed more suited for kitchen or latrine duty. Flying low profile runs the Tuskegee Airmen are hungry to mix it up with the Germans but they are often grounded due to racism and faulty separate-but-certainly-not-equal equipment. When the Allied bombers suffer catastrophic casualties during bombing raids it is noted that the white pilots sent to protect their comrades are more interested in racking up kills than protecting the B-52s. Most missions end in failure and death. The Tuskegee men are finally allowed to fly a bombing run. Their sole objective is to protect the “heavies” at all costs. Even if it means forgoing attacking the Germans and missing out on the glory.

The movie is filled with stock, pedestrian characters that were so thinly defined and broadly written it was like watching an ABC Family Special Black History Month Presentation. Surprisingly John Ridley (Three Kings, U-Turn) penned the script and Aaron McGruder (The Bookdocks) did a final polish. The result of what should have been a dynamic collaboration turned out to be a tepid historical drama. All the tropes were thrown into the mix: the crusading Colonel valiantly trying to show the white brass inside the Pentagon that black men deserve to die for their country; the fatherly Major in charge of his eager troops, the troubled alchoholic squad leader who desperately seeks his father’s approval, the flashy philandering womanizer with the best flying skills but the worst discipline; the baby-faced recruit whose only passion is flying. There’s a folksy musician, comedy relief, a soulful Christian who loves Black Jesus and of course the hot love interest.

Terrence Howard tries his best to project gravitas and idealism in a thankless performance as Colonel A.J. Bullard who is nothing more than a pitchman trying to keep the pilots dreams alive. Cuba Gooding Jr. is completely unbelievable as the sage base commander complete with apple pie charm and a pipe; channelling Harry Morgan’s less grizzled Colonel Potter from M.A.S.H. If they could have put him in a cardigan they would have. Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, Elijah Kelley, Ne-Yo, David Oyelowo and Marcus T. Paulk were all likable as the pilots but given “very little” to do. Anthony Hemingway in his feature film debut lost control of his film. He didn’t push the script or actors into new territories. I would have even taken some Roland Emmerich style melodrama over the sodden work here. From the opening credits that resembled an episode of the Black Sheep Squadron to the tacit punctuations of racism throughout gave the movie a tentative feel. Still photography with thought bubbles would have given off more heat and emotion than seen here. It was like the filmmakers didn’t want to commit anything too bloody or too garish. They kept everything soft and palatable. Like celluloid baby food. This is supposed to be a war movie dammit! I wanted to see the balls out bravado of The Dirty Dozen combined with the heart and soul of Platoon mixed with the style and depth of Full Metal Jacket. What I got was a loose primer on one of the greatest little known stories about World War II.

I must say the bulk of the budget was spent on the spectacular air skirmishes. They were moving and well crafted. The climax of the film served up our brave men in their propeller planes going up against the superior technology of the Nazis Messerschmitt jets was one of the better dogfights ever put on film. Clearly this part of the movie was influenced by George Lucas whose better working with CGI than real people. But ultimately these beautiful aerial battles were nothing more than pops of color in a drab room. Acrobatic chiaroscuro in an unstylish remarkably un-violent war movie. Leaving the theater my heart swelled with pride at these great Americans whose sacrifice and determination made all of us, not just African Americans proud as they fought adversity. Unfortunately this movie about them did not make my heart soar.

Pariah: Dee Rees a star just born

Sitting through Pariah, Dee Rees semi-autobiographical new movie is not one of those visceral theater experiences like Darren Aronofsky Requiem for a Dream or the highly controversial Italian film, Salo. You don't leave depressed or whimpering in dry heaves. You leave with the impression that something really important has been put on film. Quiet and introspective, Pariah explores the coming of age of Alike (pronounced A-lee-kay) a 17-year-old "butch" lesbian on the streets of Brooklyn. I must admit the movie itself is nowhere as violent or melodramatic as the premise may sound. It was a small muted slice of life as a young woman tries to make her way through the brambles of budding sexuality and a deteriorating home life all at once.

Alike is a masculine-leaning (or aggressive as they called themselves in the film) teenage lesbian. She is shy like many kids her age and all she wants is to have a girlfriend. She is guided by her best friend and mentor Laura. Not in denial but in hiding Alike changes clothes from the hyper-masculine affectation she presents at the local gay club to a sparkly, girly tee-shirt to hide that side of her life from her controlling mother and indifferent father. Kim Wayans, in a nice dramatic turn, reigns in her enormous presence to play the unhappy matriarch of the family who hides behind Jesus so she doesn't have to deal with her eldest daughters blossoming homosexuality. Charles Parnell plays her father whose DADT attitude is made up of less acceptance and tolerance for his daughter than his anger towards his wife in their decaying marriage. When the mother tries to circumvent further sapphic tendencies of developing she gets Alike to hang out with the daughter of a church member. The two girls embark on a sexual relationship that leads to heartbreak and betrayal. This was by far the most obvious plot device in what is a singular spectacular script. The words were written so truly it harkened back to the days of HBO's The Wire. Though you knew tragedy was afoot you were rooting for Alike to find her love. The film ended on a bittersweet note that you as the viewer had to pearl for Alike's and your inner joy.

Adepero Oduye as the main character is so fresh and vulnerable in her performance that often you want to look away to respect her privacy. Ms. Oduye captures teenage Weltschmerz with the power of a smoldering ember. The notion of heat is right below the surface. We see her toggle between despondence and euphoria and great weeping devastation just like any other red-blooded teen. Many times in the same scene. Her work on this film is so real I was transported back to those same emotions as I attended North Forsyth High School. This performance is definitely award worthy. Pernell Walker as Laura, struggling with her own mommy-issues gave an insightful, painful and solid performance. But to me the star of this movie is its director. Crafting and weaving a story that compels you in a direction that you didn't know you were going in until you arrived at it realizing that this was the only place you needed to be. She pushed her actors to give deep portrayals not just imitations of lives unknown. This movie may not be the glossy absurdity that black cinema has become mired in lately but its certainly an important new voice that I think we should hear from for years to come. Brava Ms. Rees. And like one of the teenage girls mentioned when discussing her bisexuality: "I like girls. But I love boys." And I love movies like this.