Underworld: Blood Wars

Underworld: Blood Wars videos

Cast & Crew

Kate Beckinsale

Selene

Theo James

David

Tobias Menzies

Marius

Lara Pulver

Semira

Charles Dance

Thomas

James Faulkner

Cassius

Peter Andersson

Vidar

Clementine Nicholson

Lena

Bradley James

Varga

Daisy Head

Alexia

Oliver Stark

Gregor

Anna Foerster

Director

Cory Goodman

Screenwriter

Tom Rosenberg

Producer

Gary Lucchesi

Producer

Len Wiseman

Producer

Richard S. Wright

Producer

David Kern

Producer

Eric Reid

Executive Producer

James McQuaide

Executive Producer

Skip Williamson

Executive Producer

Henry Winterstern

Executive Producer

Ben Waisbren

Executive Producer

Karl Walter Lindenlaub

Cinematographer

Peter Amundson

Film Editing

Michael Wandmacher

Original Music

Ondrej Nekvasil

Production Design

Martin Vackár

Supervising Art Direction

Stefan Kovacik

Art Director

Beatrice Brentnerova

Set Decoration

Bojana Nikitovic

Costume Design

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Critic Reviews for Underworld: Blood Wars

Audience Reviews for Underworld: Blood Wars

• Jan 10, 2019

  So it looks like yesterday I was able to utilize a mobile hotspot to post the reviews on the sites that I post them on. If it holds up, this will be what I use for the next week or so as the appointment to have it fixed was made for next Friday. Funny thing about that is that we were informed by our provider that their people came to perform some improvements that, apparently, left us without service and a few other people as well. They didn't say this when they contacted us, I just mean that a neighbor's friend is going through the same thing. They don't say anything about coming to fix their mistake though, since it doesn't seem to be something on our end. Neither here nor there, I suppose. Just thought I should give you an update on the situation. So DVDs it is or borrowed DVDs at least. Hmmm, where do I start with the Underworld franchise??? I think it should be noted that Screen Gems, who distributed the franchise, also distributed the long-running Resident Evil franchise, another long-running female-lead action franchise. And, ultimately, I think both franchises suffer from the same problems. That major problem is and, in my opinion, I think Underworld suffers more from this, is the fact that every single one of the stories in these movies just start to blend together. As much as someone may love either of these franchises, you can't tell me that each installment is really all that different from one another deep down. The reason I say that Underworld is worse in this regard is because of the fact that the story, essentially, almost always involve some sort of battle between the lycans and the vampires. Every Underworld movie has the same visual style, you know the one, that bluish hue. You cannot tell any of these movies apart. Resident Evil, on the other hand, while still largely a terrible franchise, at least branched out and employed different visual styles while still, generally, dealing with the T-Virus and how it turns those who suffer from it into zombies. Underworld has looked and felt the same since its first installment came out in 2003. I was FIFTEEN fucking years old when the first movie came out, a movie that I saw in theaters with a couple of friends. It hasn't changed, in the slightest, since then. And, really, you could make the argument that it's gotten worse as it's moved along throughout a decade and a half. I think it should be obvious to most, if not all, of you that I did not like this movie in the slightest. The thing is, however, that there seems to be no end in sight for this interminable, yet strangely profitable, franchise. Underworld is a franchise that goes on because it keeps making money, yet it is one that very few people seem to care about. I know it's got passionate fans, but I don't know, they don't seem to be that obsessive and, at this point, you're making this movie for them. Sure, a more casual crowd may see an Underworld movie every 3-4 years, but they don't care. It's a movie they watch for the sake of it. Regardless, I just wish it would end. It's gone on long enough and they ran out of ideas after the first sequel. As far as this particular entry is concerned, it's another nonsensical, poorly acted, poorly choreographed sequel. The lycans and vampire are at war, STILL, and now they, they being both vampires and lycans, need Selene's daughter's blood (a daughter that Selene gave up at the end of the previous film) in order to stop the war. How the fuck does Selene's daughter's (who's the first pureblood hybrid or something) blood end the war between the lycans (led by a new, powerful lycan called Marius) and vampires, I do not know, but it supposedly will. Talking about Marius, he's supposedly someone Selene should really fear, he's bringing lycans together like never before. So he's Selene's toughest challenge to date until her next toughest challenge to date. And that's the problem with this franchise, every villain is so forgettable because you, inevitably, know that he or she is gonna be overcome at the end of the day. Even Marvel, who suffers from some of these same forgettable villains, has Thanos, who fucked shit up in Infinity War. Thanos actually WON in Infinity War. Neither here nor there, I suppose. So everyone is fighting for knowledge of where Selene's daughter is hiding. Selene's daughter, however, never once appears in the movie. So you could make the argument that this really is a whole big fucking waste of time, because the person that is driving this entry's narrative forward only appears seconds before the movie ends. This is there to fill in the blanks between Selene's daughter's disappearance and her return in the sequel. The movie, quite openly, admits that it is not worth your time. And you know how disheartening to know that a film you're watching, in a terrible franchise no less, isn't really that important. You know when I said the narrative moves forward, that was a big mistake on my part. The narrative moves laterally. It just moves a little to the left. And if it moved a little to the left yet still provided something that was entertaining but, of course, this being the Underworld franchise, you know there's nothing good. Not even if you look at it ironically or if you attempt to laugh at it. Everything is so self-serious, so gloomy, so dark that, really, it becomes a parody in and of itself. Even the Resident Evil movie had Mike Epps in one of the many entries in that franchise. This has no sense of humor whatsoever. This is even more noticeable given the fact that I was not able to finish this review prior to me watching yesterday night's movie. That movie was 2003's Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman. Which, while having a relatively serious story of this blind swordsman (duh) fighting back against this gang that's forcing its weight on this village and the swordsman eventual showdown against the gang's lead bodyguard, still had a lot of really strong comedic elements to liven things up. This movie, on the other hand, doesn't have an inch of comedy in its blood, it seems that the vampires sucked all the sense of humor (that it never had) out of this franchise's carcass. The acting is boring. Well, really, Theo James' face bores the shit out of me and he seems to not care that much either. It's not like anyone here is good, the script is just too fucking bad for anyone to be truly good, but they're all better than Theo James who, honestly, looked like he was sleepwalking through 75% of it and the other 25% he was awake cause he was starting at Kate Beckinsale's ass. Like I mentioned, the action terrible and they try to make up for it by it being bloody and gory (but not TOO bloody and gory) and it just doesn't work. The action in this movie just feels so fucking weightless. Like a kid playing with toys and he smashes them together. And, even then, the toys make a loud noise if you smash them together too hard. This movie doesn't even have that. There's no impact to any of the action, no oomph necessary to make this R-rated action movie, it's all weak and poorly edited together. Logan succeeded in its gory action because it felt brutal and visceral, like they were actually doing damage to each other. This movie, someone could be shot seven times, it's like nothing happened. It's like they got shot with, instead of bullets, baby's farts. One positive, if it can even be called that, is that there's no unnecessarily pointless sex scene. It's only a flashback to a sex scene EARLIER in this franchise. This movie, quite frankly, is a disaster. Perhaps not a disaster of epic proportions, but it does literally nothing well. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it fails monumentally at everything that it sets out to do. Sorry, Underworld fans, but this movie is kind of terrible. I really cannot think of any redeemable qualities about this. It's incredibly difficult. I hated this and I cannot fucking WAIT for this franchise to be over. The suffering has gone on long enough.

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  jesse o Super Reviewer
• Sep 08, 2017

  The fifth installment of the franchise, Underworld: Blood Wars is a contrived and pointless film. When the vampire clans face a relentless new enemy they offer renegade death dealer Selene clemency in exchange for training a new group of vampires to be death dealers. The plot is rather thin and doesn't make a lot of sense. And Kate Beckinsale phones in her performance, letting her stunt double to all the real work. Still, the fight scenes are well-choreographed and exciting (at times). Incredibly disappointing, Underworld: Blood Wars is a shallow and vapid action film that fails to revive the series.

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  Super Reviewer
• Jul 08, 2017

  Over time this franchise has virtually become a mirror image of the [i]Resident Evil[/i] movie franchise (the crappy live action franchise not the animated franchise). Both formulas have become almost identical to the point that you could simply swap out zombies with either vampire or werewolves and no one would notice or care. And of course the big question for both is how they have managed to keep going?? OK so I'm not going to explain the plot here simply because that would require going over all the previous movies and I simply can't do that. Why? because I cannot remember what happened in the previous movies and I'm not gonna rewatch them. The same argument can also be used for the [i]Resident Evil[/i] movies coincidentally. But don't worry because this movie actually recaps all the previous movies in a somewhat lengthy flashback with added narration, so you're all covered. But put simply, lots of vamps and lycans fight each other amongst a multitude of double crosses and character plot twists. The first thought that hit me as this movie get into gear was how bad it looked, what a come down from what has come before. In general this movie looks terribly dull, washed out, dreary and unexciting. Now I realise the whole point of the movie/franchise is to look like this because its a gothic action horror series. But here's the thing, all (or most) of the previous movies had interesting and imaginative visuals and ideas. You could see the people involved wanted to showcase the gothic magnificence of the story with lavish sets and costumes, unique camera viewpoints, creative action sequences and some genuine classic horror vibes. But as the franchise has progressed these elements have slowly drained away leaving this totally drab and frankly cheap looking fifth entry. The first action sequence is a shambles of obvious greenscreen, an obvious set, terrible transformations and CGI lycans, CGI blood spurts and tired action. The entire sequence looked like it was made for TV or straight out of a videogame. Dated and cliched remark there I know but there is no other way to describe it. Things don't really improve from that point either. Most of the makeup for the vampires is obvious with their straightened hair, highlights and shadow. All the vamps look like fashion models whilst the lycans look like a bunch of hobos or eastern European gypsies, still. No one ever seems to change their outfits apart from the women who change for every scene (except Selene who never gets out of her catsuit). But more importantly the whole movie is just so boring looking. Its like they had limited locations to shoot on with a limited budget. There is not a single scene or shot that looks interesting, cool or has a nice traditional gothic vibe about it. Its all just a series of badly envisioned sets saturated in a limited colour palette of black, grey and dark blue. As for plot points, well holy shit this becomes a convoluted mess fast. Most of the main characters in this movie are either a secret lover of another, or a secret child of someone else important, or they're double crossing someone. I kid you not it all becomes such a mess of character names and backstory it doesn't surprise me that there are so many flashbacks to all the other films for assistance. To top that you're never really quite sure if a certain character has actually died or not, which of course is deliberate (sequels!!). Lets talk about the new vampires we meet in this movie, the Nordic vampires. Yep you guessed it, they are Nordic, which is Scandinavian, which instantly makes people think of blondes and snow. Yes that's right, all the Nordic vampires have blonde (or platinum blonde/white) hair and eyebrows and they all dress in flowing white robes (because snow is white and they're in the snowy region of Scandinavia. See how that works). This section of the movie was genuinely laughable. The vamps looked like elves from a certain fantasy novel, they all used basic weaponry (no guns). There was also a never-ending supply of them apparently, and they carry out some underwater ritual or meditation that gives them teleporting powers (I didn't get it). Of course Selene eventually goes through this when you think she's dead (don't be stupid) and ends up with said teleporting powers...oh and blonde highlights because new movie, new look! For a movie about vampires fighting werewolves there is certainly a lot of fighting between just normal looking people (with guns, lots of guns...and hoodies, lots of hoodies). There is of course lycan action but the shit CGI mixed with how apparently useless they are made it all seem rather pointless and uneventful really. Lycan chief Marius seems to be some kind of úber lycan or hybrid, not really sure but he has a humanoid face when transformed. Naturally despite him being HUGE and muscular he still doesn't tear off Selene's head in the first five seconds of their face-off. I don't understand how or why he doesn't do this. I also don't get how Marius and David (vampire chap from last flick) can expel bullets from their bodies yet none of the others do the same when shot. Is it something to do with how many bullets or vampire/lycan hierarchy and strength?? I'm sure I've been told at some point but cannot recall. So was I disappointed with this new entry in the never ending battle between vampires and werewolves? Well its hard to answer that really. On one hand no I wasn't disappointed because I knew exactly what to expect, as I'm sure others will do to. I knew very well how it would look, feel and play out. I also knew very well that it would finish leaving the franchise open to carry on further. I would say I was left underwhelmed by the movies lack of imagination, vision and excitement which up to this point has been the franchises saving grace. Yes we know it will do the same thing all over again but come on, at least look good doing it yeah.

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  Super Reviewer
• Feb 12, 2017

  Although I enjoyed it just as much as the others my rating is lower as Underworld just seems to do what do many sequels have done before which is go round in circles with the story to the point where it's basically the same plot we have already seen, Having said that the action was the best yet in the series with some pretty good effects that really make the film as good as it was, I can't comment on the 3D as I watched the 2D version but I don't think it would of been worth paying extra for, It won't gain any new fans but fans of the previous films will enjoy it even if the plot does sound very familiar to us.

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  Super Reviewer