[CRITICAL] UNDERWORLD 5 : Blood Wars

In vampire flingueuse Kate Beckinsale is always a pleasure. But in UNDERWORLD 5, which combines the errors of taste, it is still too anecdotal.

Ironically, it is less than an interval of one month that appears on the screens French new installment ofUnderworld and Resident Evil. Two sagas, frankly, a little glorious, but interesting for their similarities and differences. Beyond their heroin, respective – the vampire Selene to one side, the slayer of zombie Alice on the other – we can already bring their evolution over the films. Having started at the beginning of the years 2000 with a budget rather reduced ($32 million) in Resident Evil in 2002 and $ 22 million for Underworld in 2003), he exuded a more intimate feel that made this series B not unpleasant. The public respondent sufficiently present, the productions are said to be that in order to win more it was enough to invest more – a logical recurrent in Hollywood, but that rarely works.

It is, therefore, from the second Resident Evil and Underworld that the two franchises have entered in an action movie cheap. However, by showing a “I-foutisme” film complete with Resident Evildirector Paul W. S. Anderson has at least managed to provide a semblance of entertainment. By not respecting so much the rules of good taste, Resident Evil fun at least on the couch on a rainy day. This is far from being the case ofUnderworld , which has opted for a form of serious. But that does not have designer-quality – writers, as directors and producers, Len Wiseman in head – to properly develop the universe, it follows from the Underworld movies misfires and fairly cheap. And, of course, UNDERWORLD 5 is no exception.

Since Underworld 2 : Evolution, Len Wiseman decided not to be present as a producer on the saga. Thus, after Patrick Tatopoulos (Underworld 3 : The rise of the Lycans) and Måns Mårlind and Bjorn Stein (Underworld : New Era), it was the turn ofAnne Foerster to join the ranks. Like its predecessors, the German has not much to his credit as a filmmaker (some of the episodes of the series) and has been chosen only to follow the instructions of the great manitou. Therefore, it’s difficult to judge it responsible for the result of’UNDERWORLD 5. All the more that he had to, again, make do with a scenario very bad.

After a quick summary of the previous episodes, voice-over and flashback, allowing especially to make obvious the ridiculousness of this whole story, we thus find Selene, still pursued by his clan, the vampires, and the lycans – the werewolves, the war against the vampires for centuries. These are in search of the daughter of Selene, a hybrid being whose blood could make it very, very hard all the lycans. Except that to protect her, Selene had abandoned his daughter and does not know where it is. Good… Clap in the end ? And well no ! Necessarily Marcus, the leader of the lycans, is not aware of this detail. And it will do everything, for an hour, to put the hand on Selene, before being forced to return to his original plan : to go to the mansion of the vampires and shoot them in the pile.

“No surprise that UNDERWORLD 5 is not good, and not even entertaining” Click To Tweet

In the meantime there will be betrayal among the vampires, a sort of evening SM (vampires like leather) in their mansion, and the companion of Selene, David (Theo James) in full existential crisis after learning who was his mother… Precisely, so that the saga was enough of its heroine and its objectives single (the survival), this character and his evolution does serve unfortunately to lead the film to a construction story limit obsolete. Him, but like the rest of the protagonists of the film (and previous episodes), did finally of vampire more than the teeth. A picture finally of the evolution of the saga, rather than just show the minimum to focus on the essential, has tried to develop a universe vampire in the modern world, but so gross, the sauce hollywood.

These additions of secondary characters cause in UNDERWORLD 5 an indentation of Selene, whose gift is yet the only interest. Above all, it is her presence, a degree of restraint, that kept the first game into something bewitching. And let’s face it, it is still pretty cool to see Kate Beckinsale in her outfit of leather and his guns in hand. But you can’t say that the few action scenes are pretty good to see her really express themselves. Although poorly filmed, the battles between the lycans and the vampires are too static, limited to shootings insignificant during which no issue is is felt. Then it remains in memory, in the middle of a bad taste, a few shots of Selene swirling with his blonde locks. In particular, this pulling up of the spine, the femur of a lycan, which she keeps in her bloody hand and, as a result of the Rated R (american classification for a movie no one under 17 years of age) as well consolation.

Stone Siclier

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