Released: January 2017
Rated R
Director: Anna Foerster
Run Time: 91 Minutes
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Cast:
Kate Beckinsale: Selene
Theo James: David
Tobias Menzies: Marius
Lara Pulver: Semira
Charles Dance: Thomas
I’m going to do a special feature on this, but for now let me say this: January is the worst possible month for movies. There’s a reason for this. Most movies that come out in January end up not being very good. Why is that? It seems to be the dumping place for movies that studios have the least faith in. It’s been like this for quite some time. If a movie is released in January, it doesn’t end well. The movie itself might not necessarily be bad, but people won’t go out to see it. It’s a new year, and it’s cold out. People don’t want to leave the comfort of their homes. Movie studios know this and they place questionable releases in the first month of the year. With that being said, it’s 2017, so we have a ton of new movies coming out this year. So, what’s the first one I see? A sequel: Underworld: Blood Wars, the fifth entry into the gothic vampire/werewolf action film saga. Is it any good? Let’s dive in.
Underwold: Blood Wars begins as the legendary “Death Dealer,” Selene is on the run from a coven of Vampires because she killed Victor, a High Elder. She’s also being targeted by Lycans(werewolves) because her daughter, Eve, has special blood that could make the Lycans invincible against the Vampire clans. However, nobody knows where Eve is, not even her own mother. Marius, the new leader of the Lycans, has organized a large enough force to challenge the vampires on their own doorstep. In order to fight the Lycan horde, the Vampire coven is forced to recruit Selene in their fight for survival. The film’s story has a lot of problems and most of them are a result of the previous film, Underworld: Awakening. The biggest issue here is the fact that Eve is mentioned at all. She doesn’t even show up. She appears in flashbacks and a quirky vision at the end of the film, but that’s it. Since nobody can find her, that means she’s safe, if we are going by this film’s logic. If Eve is safe, then where’s the fucking tension? As problematic as the last movie was, Selene had something to fight for. When she found out she had a daughter, she was willing to do ANYTHING to keep the girl safe. So, if the girl is no longer a part of the equation, what motive does Selene have to continue fighting? The answer is simple: She doesn’t. What we have here is a tired retread of what’s come before: Selene is asked to come back by the vampires and is promptly betrayed….again and has to fight her way out with the aid of another person….again. At least, in the last movie she was an unstoppable force. Here, it seems as though if the character was written to be helpless for a good chunk of the film. There are a couple of threads here and there that are fairly interesting. David is the son of a High Elder, which essentially makes him royalty. It’s also revealed that there were other covens around the world. The one in the west was destroyed when humans discovered that vampires and werewolves existed. There is also a coven far to the north, where their vampires have special…gifts. I like the fact that Blood Wars is trying to add to the mythos of the franchise, and that is arguably the most interesting part of the franchise. However, there is no payoff to all that background information.
Since the story is a bust, how’s the rest of the film? Let’s take a look at the acting. I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve had a bit of a crush on Kate Beckinsale when she first donned the black leather outfit. She’s beautiful and she’s bad-ass in the role. She clearly loves playing the character and doing all the fights and stunts, so she has the biggest stake in the film, obviously. Her performance is easily the best in the film. Her character is both strong and vulnerable at times, and Kate gives the character a pathos which is clearly lacking in many movies these days. She helps drive the film forward. The only other actor in the film that also pulls his weight is Charles Dance as Thomas. The guy has a grace and elegance about him that also gives him a very commanding presence. I’ve always liked Charles Dance as an actor. He has a gravitas unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. Everyone else though, is pretty disposable. There’s nothing here that’s Oscar-worthy. Razz-worthy? Possibly.
Okay, the story’s a bust and the acting is a very mixed bag, so how’s the action? This is an area in which the movie excels. The action is surprisingly hard-hitting and very, VERY violent. You’ve got gunfights, swordfights, and general hand-to-hand fisticuffs. It’s pretty varied. I’m fairly impressed. In the northern fortress, when the Lycans attack, it’s a brutal affair. People get torn to shreds and we get to see werewolves get sliced in half. It’s pretty much non-stop. When the first bullet flies, the movie just shifts into overdrive. As a straight-up action movie, Blood Wars has it where it counts.
Ultimately, a lot of the problems that I have with this film are not just story-related. The editing is all over the board. For a lot of things that are happening on screen, the movie is not long enough to take it all in. In fact, there were several instances where I feel that certain elements of the film that could have been necessary, where taken out. The editing was sloppy. I can only hope that the home video release has an extended version, because there’s stuff here that’s missing. It feels like Sony wants this franchise to die. I hope it doesn’t, because there is enormous potential for some truly epic story-telling. I love the background information. I love the lore. It’s all very interesting. It’s just a shame that the movies surrounding this aren’t so hot. Look, I’m going to be honest. I’m a pretty hardcore fan of the Underworld movies. Even Awakening. I can honestly forgive a lot of the issues that the film has because I’m a fan of the franchise, but not a lot of people will. If you are a die-hard fan of the series, then you will find something to love here. I did, but I also see the problems that the movie has. So, because of this, I will give two final scores.
Final Score for Fans of Underworld: 7/10.
Final Score for Everybody else: 5/10.