Underworld: Blood Wars

Just in case viewers of forgotten what happened in previous instalments, or not watched them all, this film opens with a brief precis of what happened before. This explains how our protagonist, the vampire soldier Selene has had her daughter hidden somewhere even she doesn't know and how both vampires and lycans are determined to find her as they believe it will help them end the war between the two species.

Protagonist Selene is wanted by the lycans, who believe she is the key to finding her daughter and the vampires who what revenge for what she did in a previous film. As the war is going so badly for the vampires she is granted a pardon and invited to help train more vampire soldiers, known as Death Dealers, for the upcoming battle against the lycans who are led by Marius, a smarter than typical lycan. Unfortunately she is betrayed and only survives thanks to the actions of David, the son of a senior vampire... before the film is over they will have to fight both lycans and vampires in a number of battles.

Having enjoyed the first three films, but not seeing the fourth, I was glad of the short but effective recap at the start of the film. The story might not be the greatest but it served the purpose of justifying several really impressive fight scenes both between vampires and lycans and between rival vampires. Some of these were one on one or small scale, others were battles with numerous combatants. All of these scenes were pretty exciting and featured good CGI. Selene continues to be a fine protagonist and David provides good support for her; Kate Beckinsale and Theo James are solid in these roles. Vampire Semira and lycan Marius are decent antagonists played by Lara Pulver and Tobias Menzies. Overall a solid enough supernatural action movie; hardly a must see but a fun way to pass an hour and a half if you like the genre.

After the disappointment that was Awakening I didn't go see this movie with high expectations, but I came out surprised. The movie is totally fine. Does it have some poor CGI and bad actions scenes? Absolutely. But it also has some quite brutal and "Whoa" moments. What surprised me the most was the story which actually references a lot of the past movies, expands the lore and ties some loose ends nicely. Critics will absolutely destroy this movie but if you are a fan of the series or just want to throw some popcorn in your face watching a fun movie, you should definitely check it out. Did I mention Kate Beckinsale still kicks ass?

In the 2006 film CLICK (a throwback to a strange era when Adam Sandler was considered one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood) a very hammy Chris Walken, playing the Devil, takes a moment to tell Sandler (playing the husband) of Beckinsale, in all seriousness, and with a straight face, "Your wife is smoking hot." Which in a nutshell explains the staying power of Underworld I, a film I have seen perhaps 8 times so far. It combined a kickass script with great action sequences and featured Kate as perhaps the sexiest vampire in film history.

Flash forward through several sequels (too many) and we still have Kate ... but little else. One of the worse scripts in recent memory, so bad it verily fails the late Roger Ebert's "20 minute test" (if a film fails to hook up in the first 20 minutes, leave the theatre).

Horrible story, horrible characters, and overall a pretty rotten movie.

Advice -- go see the first one all over again. You'll thank me in the morning,

Does justice to the Underworld sage in what is apparently the last outing for Kate (let's hope it's not true). It has all the fun, action, mythology and sexiness that we the viewers deserve.

Enjoyed the saga immensely :)

It's Kate Beckinsale again in tight leather! Come on people, pop in the Blu-Ray or stream it and load up the popcorn. Take off the critic's thinking cap for a night. Don't expect too much with a sophisticated plot or story line. Do expect some Lycan ass-kicking from Selene as usual, and enjoy the movie for what it is - a war between vampires and werewolves. The CGI could have been better, but did I not mention Selene/Kate in tight leather?