2006: an Underworld Evolution year

I was cleaning out a jacket and came upon a movie stub for the film "Underworld Evolution". After awhile I began to save the ticket stubs. That means I went to see it at least one more time than I thought I did. I began to reflect on why the movie and its themes grabbed me so. So here are some closing thoughts on 2006 reflected through the film.

I feel that the concept of an underworld reflects our subconscious. Just as the battle between the vampires and werewolves(lycans) is pretty much unseen by the normal populace, there is the movement of energies and forces in our collective unconscious that really shape our world yet basically remain unseen to those held captive by the conscious mind. And I feel that those forces would seem to be at war. This is reflected by the "war" in Iraq and the threat of terrorism we all face. The main question is: Is war the natural state of these energies/forces or is there the possibility for something else?

To a being on the level of Osensei, it is probably apparent that those energies and forces would rather blend and harmonize to create a world of peace rather than what we currently have. So, obviously, there is the concept of Underworld Evolution, that the archetypes and energies in the global subconscious need re-defining and, at the very least, healing.

The character of Selene(Kate Beckinsale) would seem to be a modern day pop/cult heroine on the order of the "60's Mrs Peel. Emma Peel was largely a cultural archetype, surfacing at a time when women were yet to really embrace their own power. I view Selene as much more a psychological archetype. She is a much angrier character than Mrs Peel. I believe she symbolizes the earth. In recent years there have been more than a few tsunamis, earthquakes, and acts of nature to let us know that our control of the environment through technology is a lot more tenuous than we would like to think.

So what can we see in 2006 through the lens of the film? Selene's role as soldier and almost automated assasin in the first film is shattered by the realization that she has been lied to and that her own sense of her own reason for being is flawed. She must face a very chaotic situation more as a warrior, one who operates through conscious choice rather than orders or taking sides. She finds an ally in Michael, which means she chooses to trust, and begins to embrace the human side of herself. And at the end of the film she seems to implore us all to "look into the light with new hope". Hopefully, that is 2007, the journey to trust and conscious choice.

I'm including one of my favorite videos on the film from Youtube: