Underworld: Blood Wars Review

The latest entry in the Underworld series takes it to a new ground by fully embracing the war aspect of this conflict. In the past it's always been minor battles, but this is the first time that there's a war type feeling to it all. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) returns in fully glory offering a great performance for her vampire character, but is once again trapped within a poorly put together story.

After being on the run following the events of the last film she once again meets up with David (Theo James) and the two gain sanctuary to one of the last covens. Everyone is still after blood for whatever reason with the lycans all of a sudden getting a new scary leader that organizes the crew whereas the vampires have those within their ranks that are also seeking the pure evolutionary blood through nefarious means.

This has Semira (Lara Pulver) attempting to pull strings to get Selene back into their order to fight the new threats. At a glance this actually isn't bad structure, it just becomes incredibly convoluted throughout the story with many moments of where I honestly wondered what was happening. It didn't feel cohesive and while trying to be smart it just came across as I'll have to just go with it instead of key events making sense.

When looking back on the series the CGI in the past has been mostly bad I'd say, but this time around it does actually look much better. There were some bad scenes though most of it actually looked really great and the lycans also had more realism to them.

The action scenes were solid offering less quick jumps and more focus on fights with some fantastic battles. I generally enjoyed the pacing of the story and loved the gore elements. I also found that the cinematography was much better with some interesting uses of darkness and environment.

I particularly liked some of the vampire areas, seeing the dark party was neat and the odd frozen fortress was different. The movie in general was however set off by just how much background story was constantly streamlined into it and the vast amount of varying actions of characters that didn't come together in an exciting way.

The Conclusion

I certainly didn't hate Underworld: Blood Wars as there was something entertaining there. It just didn't come together in a way that entirely made sense and lacked in some other key areas. There might have been too much to balance, but in general an improvement for the series.

Kate Beckinsale once again shines in her role as Selene and while many of the side characters weren't great, a couple did also excel. It's certainly more Underworld and existing fans will probably enjoy this as usual, if not more.

Underworld: Blood Wars Review at Theater with 3D AVX Viewing

Rating Overall: 4.7