Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
As I sank into the comfy reclining chairs at the Novo Cinemas IMAX premiere, I was prepared to note down all the good things I could say about the latest Underworld film.
I wanted to give it a positive review because, after all, I do love vampire movies (and the Editor did complain about having movie critics who never actually enjoy movies). However, despite the snug atmosphere and the hopeful glint in my eyes, Underworld: Blood Wars was an utter disappointment.
The movie centres around Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a vampire deathdealer caught in a war between vampires and Lycans who both thirst after her blood. Why vampires and werewolves can never get along will always be beyond me, but I digress.
Kate Beckinsale, in the fifth installment of the once-exciting Underworld series, looks ever stunning and ageless, but this is not enough to merit yet another movie in the franchise. This iteration focuses on a never ending war which could potentially result in two or three more equally disappointing sequels, considering that a sixth edition is already on its way.
Fans who have been following the series might find it tolerable, although the fight scenes are not as ‘bloody’ thrilling in comparison to the previous offerings. We are told that the Lycans now have a new leader, Marius, who is shown to be the biggest threat that the Vampires have faced. In order to protect themselves, the vampires enlist the help of Selene, whom they despise, to train their fighters but like all predictable vampire movies there is the promise of false security and a plot twist.
A quote from the movie The Lost Boys: “Don’t ever invite a vampire into your house” is apt for Selene’s situation. This is, however, the opposite of what she continuously does in all the movies, inviting the vampires who want her gone back into her life … time after time.
With this in mind, it feels as though she never learns her lesson or maybe it’s a more deep-rooted problem about acceptance. Beneath her tough, ‘everyone has left me’, ‘losing my very existence’ exterior she really craves acceptance from either the Lycans or the vampires considering that she’s a part of both of them.
One of the positive things about the film is that it gets the digital makeover necessary for a movie with 1,000-yearold vampires to make it to the big screen in the modern day. However, there is not much of a plotline to follow and it is splattered with excessive gore, which makes for a good time-killer but not a movie one would necessarily watch for enjoyment.
For a movie so heavily dependent on CGI effects (since the characters are based on supernatural beings) Underworld’s digital enhancements came off as tacky and hastily-designed in my opinion.
Beckinsale, while youthful, lacks the human emotion in her acting that is required for someone who has seen so much bloodshed and trauma, as we are shown in the recap at the beginning of the movie.
Perhaps Underworld: Blood Wars’ biggest downfall is that it features diverse and talented actors who do not perform, on this showing, up to the standards to which they are held. Overall, the gore and the spectacular being that is Theo James were the only things that got me through the movie. Fan or not, I would damn this movie into the bowels of the real underworld.
Now showing: City Centre, Seef II, Wadi Al Sail, Al Jazeera, Dana, Novo, Mukta
