Thanks to the likes of The Killing and Borgen, Scandinavian thrillers are the in thing at the moment. However these bursts in popularity for particular bits of world entertainment mean an awful lot of stuff gets released hoping to cash-in on the phenomenon, whether it’s top quality stuff or not. ID:A definitely feels like it come from the second rank of Scandinavian thrillers, despite the presence of Oscar winning director Christian E. Christiansen and Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa producing.

The movie opens with a woman waking up in a French river, with a scar on her stomach but no memory of who she is or how she got there. Adopting the name Aliena, she tries to work out who she is and soon becomes aware that mysterious heavies are looking for someone with her description. When she works out she could be Danish, she heads north, finding a clue on the way when she recognises the voice of famous opera cinema Just Ore.

This realisation sets off a chain of increasingly dark events where Aliena discovers the truth of who she is, as well as the murder, brutality and fear that led to her ending up in the river in the first place.

It’s very difficult to make an amnesia thriller that doesn’t seem hackneyed. The Bourne films managed it by making the character’s memory loss essentially a sideshow to the conspiracy theories and the balls-to-the-walls action. Here it’s all about the amnesia, which is okay but does start feeling slightly cheap when you realise that it’s more a plot device than anything absolutely essential. Indeed its main job is to make the thriller seem more interesting and innovative than it actually is, as without it much of the story would seem rather silly.

That’s not to say it’s all bad though, as the film moves along at a fair clip and the amnesia storyline does keep you watching to find out who the woman is and what happened to her. The story gets ever darker and things become increasingly deadly when we go into extended flashback to find out the violence and abuse that resulted in ‘Aliena’ falling into the river. The film has fun playing with our ideas of who characters are, but it starts feeling a little tired and the characters end up making less and less sense, eventually resorting to using increasingly grisly violence in place of a plot that actually seems to have grown organically.

ID:A does have one very rare and welcome thing, a gay character whose sexuality is relevant but who could quite as easily have been straight. It’s largely presented as something that just is and nobody has much to say about it, which is surprisingly rare, especially in the thriller genre.

It’s an okay movie, but anyone hoping for the filmic equivalent of The Killing will be disappointed. In fact it has more in common with Hollywood product than the slick Scandinavian dramas BBC3 has been drooling over.

Overall Verdict: Amnesia is a surprisingly difficult thing to make work on film, with ID:A showing that without care and an extremely tight, strong plot around it, it can seem a tad cheesy.

Special Features:
Trailer

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Underworld Awakening continues the story of the previous films, skipping ahead 12 years to a world where vampires and werewolves have been outed to the world and as a result they’ve been hunted to near extinction, or so it seems.

While at first this sounds quite different, eventually it becomes apparent that this is just the same story from the first two films spun slightly differently. There is still a hybrid vampire/werewolf who the two sides are fighting over and there is nothing to help make this film less boring than the originals. Additionally the purge storyline has very little impact in the long run. It’s revealed very early on that they have both survived in secret. Essentially the only difference is that now there are humans shooting at Kate Beckinsale as well as werewolves. Slow motion is as heavily abused as ever – I swear before these films I used to like it! It also still uses that annoying blue filter that just makes everything hard to see.

At least in this film Kate Beckinsale gets to act a little bit more, showing actual emotion rather than being totally cold. It’s still hardly Oscar worthy but at least it’s a step up. The supporting cast are pretty much instantly forgettable, just some vampires and werewolves growling and generally acting pissed off, as well as a small girl who mostly just whimpers.

The film’s attempt to add a twist ending is pathetic and can be seen from a mile off. There is also a laughable conspiracy which is just painfully ridiculous. In between all this and the boring action, essentially you’re just left with a feeling of meh-ness. I’m honestly surprised they’ve managed to stretch four films out of this bland franchise. To make it even worse the ending hints at a fifth!

None of the extras are worth watching. There are five featurettes that talk about the cast and the making of the film, and are essentially just begging it up. There are also some unmade deleted scenes represented with CGI, that resemble an N64 game. Finally there’s a unfunny blooper reel and a music video.

Overall Verdict: Totally bland and not worth your time. At least its short.

Special Features:
5 Featurettes on various aspects of production
CGI visualisations of deleted scenes.
A blooper reel
A music video

Reviewer: Matt Mallinson