Four years after the last Underworld installment (Awakening) back in 2012, badass Death Dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is back in Underworld: Blood Wars. This time, she is hunted by both the Lycans and the Vampires, both sides desperate to obtain the unique blood of her and her daughter’s.
With Michael (her lover) dead, and with no knowledge of her daughter’s whereabouts, Selene joins forces with David (Theo James), a vampire she saved back in the events of Awakening, to end the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires.
As is the trademark of the Underworld series, there’s plenty of action in black leather gear. It seems that Selene’s Death Dealer skills have improved since the last movie; no longer does she rely on heavy weaponry – plenty of hand-to-hand combat pepper the movie, whether it’s taking down 5 guys at once, or yanking out the spinal cord of a Lycan. Swordfights are back in vogue as well, although disappointingly the final battle scene is all guns and bullets.
It has to be said that the fiercely ambitious vampire Semira held a lot of promise as a powerful nemesis – she played her chess pieces well (scheming, more like) until you realise that all she wants is something so powerful that she doesn’t know how to use it to its full potential. Pity that someone as despised on the level of Cruella de Vil didn’t get her final show.
Selene’s biggest adversary is undoubtedly Marius, the new Lycan leader who’s organised and dangerous – and strangely, all he wants is for Selene to lead him to her daughter so that he can obtain her blood in order to become a Lycan-Vampire Hybrid. Yup, every creature in this movie is out for blood, hence its title. In any case, Marius possesses unique Lycan traits, making him a force for Selene to reckon with.
For the first time ever, audiences will get to see the ‘northern’ vampires – white-haired and fur-clad brethrens that practise strange water treatments deep in the cold, snowy regions of (we presume) the North Pole. It is in the northern coven that Selene gains her most profound power, but we won’t spoil it here (remember the trailer where she appears with ombre-tinted hair?).
David also plays a much bigger role (hint: Amelia) than the movie initially leads on, and we may see more of him in the next installment of the series (yes, it’s set up that way and someone got promoted to an Elder). Throughout the movie we don’t see Selene’s daughter or Michael, but it’ll all be explained at the end. The body count will entertain you until then.
Underworld: Blood Wars is out in cinemas across Singapore.
