Review: Underworld: Blood Wars (15)

According to the monster movie mythology, sunlight and wooden stakes are the only sure-fire methods to end an immortal vampire's bloodthirsty reign of terror.
MONSTER MOVIE: Kate Beckinsale and Theo James in Underworld: Blood Wars. Picture: PA Photo/Sony.MONSTER MOVIE: Kate Beckinsale and Theo James in Underworld: Blood Wars. Picture: PA Photo/Sony.
MONSTER MOVIE: Kate Beckinsale and Theo James in Underworld: Blood Wars. Picture: PA Photo/Sony.

The fanged fiends are impervious to bullets, crucifixes or holy water, and are blessed with remarkable powers of self-healing. The Underworld film series, which chronicles the bitter war between vampires and lycans (werewolves), displays a similar resistance to death in the face of a relentless barrage of critical barbs.

The fifth instalment in the saga is another triumph of style over substance and comprehension.

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Blood Wars is punctuated by gravity-defying fight sequences, which showcase how sweetly lead actress Kate Beckinsale can shoehorn her lithe frame into a beautifully buffed PVC catsuit.

Underworld: Blood Wars is indistinguishable from earlier instalments, repeatedly relying on flashbacks to create a false sense of forward momentum.

Digital effects, especially the mutation of actors into slavering werewolves, don’t always meld seamlessly with live action and draw attention for the wrong reasons. Beckinsale tries to inject emotion into scenes that explore her character’s estrangement from her daughter, but these are meagre scraps between bombastic skirmishes.