12/24/2022 0 Comments Underworld blood wars free and fullWhile Underworld: Blood Wars wisely attempts to get back to the fallout of the first two films that has been ignored for about a decade-what happens when the leaders on each side of the war turn out to be liars who are then dispatched?-it does so without bringing a shred of originality or newness to the film. Eventually, the werewolves show up, and the teeth and blades come out. So rest assured, there will be betrayals, back-stabbings, political power moves, and a nice trip to the Northern Coven, which is where all the Swedish vampires seem to hang out in a snowy monastery while probably reading Jack Kerouac or something. Semira also has designs on Selene’s blood, which has the magical properties of the oldest non-monstrous immortal, Corvinus (Derek Jacobi), who died in Underworld: Evolution (trenchant, ain’t it?). Needless to say, Semira is still a bit prickly about that, as well as the tiny little detail that Selene killed Viktor back in the original 2003 film. Selene is brought back into the fold to train Death Dealer recruits to fight Marius’ war party, however the vampric council woman/seductress who organized this is Semira, the original apple of Viktor’s eye before he adopted Selene as his second surrogate daughter a thousand or so years ago. While Blood Wars is wise to distance itself from its predecessor, the aspect of Selene being a mother to a teenage werewolf-vampire hybrid named Eve (India Eisley) was a shrewd choice that broke up the formula and theoretically brought some new dimensions to Beckinsale’s brooding lycan-killer. If you don’t recall the past four movies in detail, a snapchat-quick montage gets you up to speed on what occurred in the first two Underworlds, and the fact that Kate Beckinsale’s eternally wrathful Selene was reluctantly given a surprise daughter in the fourth picture. The film itself opens as a bit of a course correction. What’s left is for hardcore fans only, and I’m not sure I can even include some of the people who make these movies in that boat. As a consequence, whatever life there was in the first several kooky and fetishistic Selene adventures has drained away, like so much plasma dripping into the snow. However, the series appears more prone with each passing film to shed fans as opposed to grow them, and this installment, while a step up from 2012’s abysmal Underworld: Awakening, is hardly any more ambitious or high-minded than its sister Screen Gems franchise, the insipid Resident Evil movies. To be sure, many of the charms and peculiarities of the Underworld franchise are alive and well in Blood Wars, including a supporting cast that goes beyond the call to elevate their material into something grand. Just maybe, after five films, things have finally come full circle. By its finale, Underworld: Blood Wars seems to offer the first legitimate ending with a sense of closure in the franchise’s history.
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