Underworld Awakening: reboot or remix?

In an effort to recover from the last Underworld movie, the producers decided to do a reboot of sorts with Underworld: Awakening. They decided to change the world that it is set in to a time in the near future. Good choice because the last Underworld movie which was set in the past, didn't quite work out. But isn't it the same decision on but in a different way?
This time around they brought back the husband and wife team of Kate Beckinsale and Len Wiseman (in a producer's role). The story goes that the humans have discovered the war between the Vampires on one side and Lycans and werewolves on the other. They have also discovered that both of the races are the result of a virus. This becomes the motivation for their course of action. Vampires, Lycans and werewolves are hunted as infected animals, to be culled. The effort is successful as the Lycans are believed to be extinct while what is left of the werewolves are running wild like packs of dogs. The Vampires are driven into hiding as the humans go door to door in search of Vampire, Lycan and werewolf.

When am I not holding a gun in this movie?

However, the Selene, the Death Dealer and heroine of first two Underworld movies, was not killed but cryogenically frozen. She is freed and with the help another vampire, David, she finds out that she is connected to Eve, another escapee from Antigen, the company that had been holding her captive. David brings here to what remains of the Vampires and they are set upon the Lycans who seem to want Eve for their own purposes. In the battle, she encounters a werewolf that is immune to silver. Selene learns and accepts the truth about Eve and sets about freeing her from the Lycans, which mysteriously brings her back to Antigen.
That is about more than 50% of the plot. Despite what people have written elsewhere, there is a lot of plot in Underworld Awakening. Unfortunately, a lot of it gets explained to the audience rather than being discovered or allowed to unfold. In fact, of the important plot points, all that is left as a surprise is a key revelation that may come as a real surprise to some (check out the spoiler parts below for more).
The mythology of the world remains largely intact. Although some question as to what is the point to cyrogenically freezing Selene as she is immortal anyway, I think it is more a way to imprison her than anything else.

The plot takes a back seat to the action. And there is no shortage of that. Think of any cliched action special effect, it probably is there. Bullet-time, blood by the bucketload, through-the-wall zoom shots. All used. Some sort of suspense is achieved in the anticipation of action but once it starts, there seem to be no stopping. There is even a "homage" to the second Matrix movie.

Acting is okay. Stephen Rea plays the standard evil corporate medical CEO. He looks bored but maybe that is just how he looks like. About the only time he was interesting was when some special effects was done on his face. Although Selene is immortal Kate Beckinsale isn't. She is beginning to show some age. The white make-up doesn't hide anything. If there is another movie, please do it quickly. Eve is played by India Eisley. She brings little to the overall movie because of all the action sequences. In fact, all she seems to do is Linda Blair's Exorcist impressions. 
The movie producers chose to set the movie in a time in the near future. This is a smart move because they would only need to change some aspects of the movie while keeping the majority of what consists of the "world". No need for flying cars, intergalactic travel. Just a souped up car and familiar vehicles like trucks and so on.
A ride movie if there ever was one. Watch Underworld Awakening once and get it over with.

SPOILER ALERT
It's an out-and-out action movie. There isn't much to spoil. But I do like the superimposition of the evil corporate entity image on Antigen. I thought they were at trying figure out what made Selene immortal. Since it's a virus, surely there is a way to break it down and extract the good parts. Why not cut up Selene in the pursuit of the fountain of youth. If they could synthesize the virus to remove the negative aspects of the virus (the desire to suck blood, spontaneously combust in daylight), it would make hell of a sale item. It turns out Antigen is run by Lycans and they have discovered that Selene and Eve hold the key to making them truly immortal by being silver-resistant.