5) Selene –Â Underworld
The Underworld movies, despite having their fans, don’t make that great an impression, but if there’s one thing about them that does it’s Kate Beckinsale as vampire warrior Selene. By 2003, Beckinsale was an accomplished actress, but there was hardly anything on her IMDb page that said, “Here’s a woman who could convincingly suit up in leather body suit and destroy all monsters with a combination of guns, swords, and wire-fu.” Well, she proved us wrong. In one fell swoop, Beckinsale asserted herself as a steely and committed action heroine, and as consequence, her character Selene became the one constant across all four (so far) Underworld films.
So, what’s the appeal? It might be that despite the fact that she’s a vampire femme fatale in the modern world, Selene has a lot in common with the legendary heroes of cinema’s Old West: she’s a loner, she has grit, she’s shrewdly capable, and driven by tragedy to get vengeance for the ones she’s lost. But despite the outward appearance of icy detachment, she still has a heart, and a moral center. She becomes drawn to Michael, a man meant to be her sworn enemy, but when she’s confronted with the fact that she was betrayed by the vampire elders, she has no qualms about turning the guns on her own kind, and boldly choosing the path that’s right for her.
So indelible is the character that Selene also narrates the beginning and end portions of the Underworld prequel, Rise of the Lycans, which takes place several hundred years before she was born. As for Selene herself, we see an evolution over the three films she’s the main character of, we see her change from lone warrior, to protective partner, to the most ferocious mama grizzly this side of an Alaskan hunting party. All the while though, the fighting skills are still tremendously impeccable as Selene takes on one bad guy after another, sometimes emerging injured, but always emerging victorious.
– Adam Donaldson
Published: Jul 25, 2014 03:18 pm