Time: 91 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – Graphic violence & horror
Cast:
Kate Beckinsale as Selene
Theo James as David
Lara Pulver as Semira
Tobias Menzies as Marius
Bradley James as Varga
Peter Andersson as Vidar
Clementine Nicholson as Lena
Daisy Head as Alexia
Oliver Stark as Gregor
Charles Dance as Thomas
Director: Anna Foerster

Having just watched Underworld: Awakening, I really wasn’t looking forward to the next film in the series, Blood Wars. It really seemed like the franchise had lost its steam at this point. Having seen it now, I can say that it has its fair share of problems, but it was better than I expected.

Blood Wars seems to go back to basics, or at least close to what you expect from the Underworld franchise. That is to say, it tries its best to do away with the aspects from Awakening, despite being a sequel to it. It’s actually a bit weird how they handle the events of Awakening. In the previous film, Selene’s daughter is introduced, and Blood Wars has her as a plot point with everyone looking for her. And yet, the film goes to great lengths to not actually show her in the movie. They also leave behind the human threat since they bungled that with Awakening. That aside, Blood Wars changed up the setting and tones and leans more into high fantasy. You can feel it almost aspiring to be Game of Thrones esque with all the long scenes of dialogues, schemes, bloodline reveals etc. The plot oddly has some intrigue to it, it’s cohesive enough and I was interested in it. Call me weird, but I kind of enjoyed the political shenanigans of the vampire coven. The supporting characters are fairly interesting and it thankfully goes into the lore building and world building you’ve come to expect from this series. It does get to a point where the stuff happening around Selene becomes more interesting than her story, you could almost remove her from the narrative and it wouldn’t have a major impact on the plot. The ending is rushed, but as a possible closure for the franchise, it’s fine. As usual, it’s an Underworld movie with a roughly 90 minute runtime. However, with all the lore and world building they attempt to do, it feels a little crammed. Considering its aspirations, the movie probably could’ve been a little longer.

The cast honestly played their parts well, all things considering. Kate Beckinsale works fine enough in her latest outing as Selene. Despite somewhat avoiding most aspects from Awakening, it does retain Theo James and Charles Dance as characters. Interestingly, James is the co-lead this time. He’s not nearly as compelling as Beckinsale/Selene, but I was okay with his storyline. Meanwhile, Dance as always adds gravitas to his roles, this is no exception. Plus, he doesn’t have to fight any fake looking plastic vampire teeth any time he has to talk this time. The movie also utilizes him a little better here, in Awakening he did feel a bit wasted. The rest of the cast including Lara Pulver, Clementine Nicholson, Daisy Head and Bradley James do well in their roles, and Tobias Menzies makes for a decent enough antagonist.

Anna Foerster is the director of the movie, her work isn’t at the level of the first three movies but is better than Awakening. It shifts a little closer to the darker look of the first few movies that I liked, I especially liked the sets and various locations. The action is over-edited and isn’t as memorable as the first three movies, but again, better than Awakening’s. The visuals effects are alright, but still lacks the practical effects which added so much to the first three movies. 

Underworld: Blood Wars has flaws with the direction and writing, but is entertaining enough and still a step up from its predecessor, especially with it leaning more into the worldbuilding and gothic aesthetic of the first three movies. I’ve seen people call this the worst Underworld film, but it wasn’t boring the way that Awakening was, and I actually enjoyed watching it. With Blood Wars being released in 2016 and no sign of a sequel in sight, it seems that they aren’t going to create another Underworld movie anytime soon. As a conclusion to the franchise, I wouldn’t consider it satisfying, but I’m fine if they end it with this film.