The trailers already gave me some hints, I simply refused to believe until I saw it. That the Underworld movies are for the better part, dead and buried.
Yes. The action is still there, as is the gore. Betrayals are still alive and kicking. And the old vampire/lycan grudge is also present.
But is Underworld still Underworld...? Unfortunately no. Kate Beckinsale try as she may, she can't carry the movie alone, nor do I believe anyone was expecting her to. I was expecting that they'd finally replace Scott Speedman as Michael, with another one of literally dozens of possible and better choices. And finally bring the whole family together, into the fight.
But to my terrible surprise they simply killed off Michael. The way it was done was terrible to say the least. At the end of Awakening, Eve, is finally able to see through her father eyes. And we know that he simply escaped the facilities. But now in Blood Wars, we were given another (conflicting) take on what happened that makes absolutely no sense. So Michael exits the cryo chamber, severely weakened and finds himself captured by Marius. Taken to another place where Marius then proceeds to seemingly shoot him in the head, and strung him up head down to drain Michael of all his blood. Which he then uses to make himself into more of a Wolf-Man than a Lycan.
So, Michael is dead, and Selene for the most part from being considered an outcast through several events (and movies), she ends up basically where she started. Again a member of the Vampire Coven. Now risen to the degree of Elder together with David.
David (Theo James) try as he might, is no Michael nor do I believe that's his purpose. In fact the story at a certain point seems to try and connect him with maybe one of this movie biggest, if not the only, good surprise. Lena! Lena (Clementine Nicholson) is without a doubt one of this movie greatest assets. And if this was a movie about the next generation, and Michael and Selene daughter, I could see her character portrait as Clementine portrayed hers.
Eve does make an appearance in the end. But the movie had all but basically drained my last ounce of hope. To me without Michael there's no more Underworld. I got to confess. When Selene was giving her usual movie ending speech, I always hoped that we'd see that Eve had found her father, given some of her blood to him, and even killed a bunch of Lycans and placed their bloody bodies on top of Michael, and from that experience, as Selene had been changed/improved by her trials of ice, so too had Michael evolved into a new form. And both father and daughter were on their way to find Selene.
But no. The movie was at its best, mildly entertaining, with some interesting fight scenes, that weren't even that great. We got plots inside plots, and twists inside twists. But the core and heart of the franchise is in my opinion, dead!
So see it if you want to. But don't expect anything outstanding or exhilarating about this movie. In some ways it actually manages to be poorer than Awakening.
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