Underworld: Blood Wars – the fifth film in the franchise – comes four years after Underworld: Awakening, but it has little that is new to offer. Maybe it’s time to bring the saga to an end as it shows signs of running out of ideas.
When this film opens, Selene is welcomed back into the coven in order to train a new line of vampire warriors in the fight against the lycans. But she is quickly betrayed by the evil and ambitious vampire elder Semira (TV actress Lara Pulver, from Da Vinci’s Demons). With the help of David (Theo James, from the Divergent series) Selene helps to ward off an attack from the new lycan leader Marius (Tobias Menzies, from TV series Outlander). However, since the first Underworld film set up the mythology of the ongoing war between the vampires and the lycans the series seems to have become more confused and convoluted and lost sight of its original intentions. The plotting now gets lost in myriad betrayals, double crosses and uncertain loyalties that will have even long time fans of the franchise scratching their heads in bemusement.
Underworld: Blood Wars is the first film in the franchise to be directed by a female. Anna Foerster hails from a background in television drama (Outlander), but she doesn’t pull her punches in her feature film debut. There are some strong, visceral action scenes here, and the film racks up a high body count, especially in the climactic battle between the vampires and an army of heavily armed werewolves. But there also several scenes of expository dialogue that slow the pace.
With its gothic stylings and cold looking surface, it would seem that Underworld: Blood Wars is aimed squarely at the Game of Thrones crowd. The film has been shot in a cold bluish pallette by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Independence Day), but the use of closeups during some of the actions sequences makes them hard to watch.
The cast are largely drawn from the world of television drama, and do what they can with the cliched one dimensional characters. Veteran Charles Dance has a bit of a twinkle in his eye as Thomas, the vampire elder, although last time we saw the character his head was cleaved in two. Obviously vampires have a wonderful ability to regenerate themselves for subsequent sequels. James has little to do beyond play the stoic action hero. For an action film, this has a fair quota of strong female characters. Beckinsale looks good and acquits herself well as an action heroine, although there is little depth to her character, and she also goes missing for large chunks of the film. Pulver is good as the tough and power hungry, manipulative Semira.
Director: Anna Foerster
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Tobias Menzies, Charles Dance, Lara Pulver, Bradley James, James Faulkner
Release Date: 1 December 2016
Rating: MA 15+
Greg King
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television