Review of Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) by Patrick L — 20 Oct 2017

"This franchise has officially run out of blood".

DVD Movie Review: Underworld: Blood Wars.

Date Viewed: May 7 2017.

Directed By Anna Foerster.

Screenplay By Cory Goodman, Story By Kyle Ward and Cory Goodman, Based on characters created by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman and Danny McBride.

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Bradley James, Tobias Menzies, Lara Pulver, Peter Andersson, James Faulkner, Daisy Head, Clementine Nicholson, Oliver Stark and Charles Dance.

Oh "Underworld" series where and when do you end because your completely bankrupt on ideas and I'm tired of seeing Kate Beckinsale fight off Lycans and Vampires. These movies have little-to-no storylines, characters we don't give a damn about and cookie-cutter action sequences. Beckinsale is there anything better to do besides making these shitty movies all for the expense of a fat paycheck? She can be a good actress, look at her in "Love & Friendship" last year. She completely stripped away the black latex costume for an old-fashioned Jane Austen adaptation. I was hoping for the best for Beckinsale but unfortunately she keeps going back to this silly and dull world.

The fifth installment "Underworld: Blood Wars" finds Death Dealer and vampire hunter Selene (Beckinsale) on the run from both the vampire and Lycan factions. What a surprise! The Lycans led by Marius (Tobias Menzies) want to capture Selene and force her to tell them the location of her daughter, Eve whose blood is the resource to build an army of vampire-werewolf hybrids. If Marius gets his hands on Eve, he will create that army and rule the world.

However, she gets reunited with her only allies, the Vampire hybrid, David (Theo James) and his father, Thomas (Charles Dance). Selene doesn't want to get involved in the eternal war between vampires and Lycans anymore but David insists that the war is not finished with her. Selene is then granted clemency by Semira (Lara Pulver), a council member of the Eastern Coven who wants her to train the coven's neophyte Death Dealers. The training seems to be going well until Semira's second-in-command and lover Varga (Bradley James) poisons Selene and kills all the Death Dealers.

Semira begins draining Selene of her blood but she gets rescued by David and Thomas. David and Selene escape as Thomas fights off Semira and what a shock she kills Thomas. Selene and David seek refuge at the Nordic Coven and when they arrive, its elder, Vidar (Peter Andersson) explains that David was the son of a High Elder and WOW! This movie is boring and complicated to keep track of. The 25 and under audience and "Underworld" fans didn't see this movie for the plot, they of course want to see Kate Beckinsale kick some ass again but come on guys she did the same movie three times already! As you can imagine, the characters are not very well drawn, the editing is jumbled and messy, Anna Foerster's direction is clunky and the fight sequences are just as dull as a Ted Cruz filibuster speech.

The best thing I can say about "Underworld: Blood Wars" is that at least it's right in line with it's predecessors. Beckinsale it's finally time to hang up the black latex suit and do something thoughtful like write a book or star in indie movies that suit your interests. Exploring something different will be a lot better than doing another "Underworld" film.

This franchise has officially run out of blood.