Too much of everything

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The 5th film in the Underworld franchise sees the Vampires and Lycans more at odds than ever. Selene is outlawed, everyone wants to find her pure-crossbreed daughter Eve in order to use her blood to establish control, and they think they can do this via Selene (who actually doesn't know where Eve is). The vampires have political machinations going on between rival factions, and the Lycans, led by Marius and having grown strong, are preparing to mount an invasion. Complicated, innit?Like the previous 4 movies, the distinguishing characteristics of this movie are a) a muted blue/grey colour palette, b) lots of slo-mo cartoon CGI blood spraying all over the place, c) masses of slo-mo violence, b) the odd respected thespian adding a spurious note of gravitas, d) a plot full of complexities which hide a threadbare storyline which can be summed up as "vampires vs werewolves" (see also episodes 1 to 4), and e) Kate Beckinsale in spray-on leather. It must be admitted that, as ever, Kate Beckinsale's bum, lovingly caressed by shiny skin-tight leather, is almost worth the price of a cinema ticket on its own.There is, thankfully a recap at the start so that those who have forgotten the previous movies are brought back up to speed. This manages to include most of the money shots from the earlier films viz half of Bill Nighy's head sliding off etc.Otherwise, it suffices only to note that virgin director Anna Foerster, taking the place of Beckinsale's now ex-husband Len Wiseman, satisfactorily delivers the mixture as expected - political shenanigans, blood, bad CGI, and grim atmosphere.Lara Pulver wears several costumes which reveal rather more Lara Pulver than costume. This is a Good Thing.Oh, and there is a bloody great unanswered question. I'm not going to say what it is, that would be a spoiler, but you'll be saying exactly what one of the lead characters says - "But I saw...." The ending makes it clear that the answer will be found in the next film. Which leads me to say, "I've been fiddled!"

The 2017 has marked a great success for several films, "Underworld: Blood Wars" is not among them (film produced in 2016 but distributed in many countries, including the US, in 2017). It does not take much to understand why the film has recorded anything exciting at the box office, unfortunately the saga had already begun to weaken with the fourth episode and the need and the request from the public for another chapter it had decreased a lot, only the fans of the saga remained, but not everyone. But as the film is really bad on many aspects such as: a confused direction, a nauseating montage, special effects of low-level and a script that adds little to the genre and the saga, and does that little in a trivial and superficial; although this is extremely evident, some of these problems have also characterized the other chapters, I can only be honest and admit that I was in any case liked for the simple fact that I enjoyed watching it, because the film, like the others of the saga, manages to entertain through the adrenaline action sequences with significant choreography and a lot of violence that leads to so much blood that, in a film of this type, never hurts. In addition, after five films I must say that I have also been keen on the characters and the world around them. In short, it is the worst, together with the fourth, of "Underworld", a saga that I would almost define my guilty pleasure, but it remains one of them, so always fun, violent and as ugly as beautiful.

Good franchise. Good movie. Good actors. Good acting. In this installment: terrible cinematography. They were very heavy-handed with their filters. The blue tint to everything is acceptable, but then they used very high contrast and then darkened the heck out of every frame of the movie. I first saw this in a theater and I assumed the projectionist was running the projector at about 60% brightness. I hoped buying the Blu-ray would deliver the true picture. Turns out, the movie *really* is dark. Too dark. Way too dark. Every vampire in the coven was wearing 100% black outfits. Put them in a candle lit room with black walls and curtains and darkened filters and you end up with blue/white faces seemingly floating around! So frustrating. Even the photo that Netflix uses for this movie (DVD cover) is far brighter than any image in the entire movie. Maybe they should have called this movie: Pitch Black. Oh wait, that's already been used.

Death dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is alone in the world. Michael is long gone. Their daughter Eve is hidden away even from Selene herself. Both Lycans and Vampires are after her. Vampire David (Theo James) comes to her aid against the Lycans and she saves his life. The Eastern Coven is losing against the Lycans and Semira (Lara Pulver) argues to reinstate Selene as leader of the new untrained Death Dealers.The franchise first started going downhill with Michael being written off. There is a Romeo and Juliet aspect to the first movie that is missing from all the rest. It's a good thing to start with a previously segment to bring some of it back since I've forgotten most of the convoluted history. The franchise is running on fumes. It feels very repetitive. This is playing to an ever shrinking fan base and nobody else. People who haven't followed the movies have no reason to watch this.