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Underworld (film series) - Movie Reviews

Something Seasonal

For the Halloween season, I watched all five Underworld movies in the month of October. I could have crammed them in one day but it was enjoyable to watch them without rushing through them. I have commented to many that Underworld is the adult version of Twilight. Basically, the series has more fights and less teenage romance. Twilight throws out that vampires can be killed by sunlight so they can go to high school but I will leave the rest of my thoughts about that series for another time.

Underworld

One of the reasons I decided to watch the series again was because I was given a copy of Underworld (unrated). Surprisingly, the unrated did add a little to the story expanding Erika's point of view but that was it. You can tell where the unrated scenes began as most times, it felt disconnected from the movie. The added story was not an improvement over the original but is worth a watch once.

Underworld is probably one of the few DVDs that I watch all the bonus features on. I believe what made this movie very good was the use of visual effects over computer special effect. Other than the transformations, the Lycans (werewolves) were in special costumes adding to their realism and not done by computer effects. One scene had a character running very fast was achieved by having them run on a platform that was being pulled by the car they were chasing.

Underworld has a great story with many twists. This was one of the best films in the series (original not the unrated version).

Underworld: Evolution

The second in the series picks up shortly after the first. The story expands the world by giving us the history of how the vampires and Lycans came to be. The story ends with a question of what will happen next. The story could have ended here just like Back to the Future 3 ended with the future is what we make of it. This film was also in the top of the series to watch.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

With Evolution seaming to be a good end to Selene's story, it was fitting for the story to go back to what caused the war to being with. Lucian's story expands on the flashback that is briefly seen in the first film. The movie adds to the lore of the series. I enjoyed this prequel and consider it one of the top  three in the franchise despite the increased use of computer special effects with the Lycans.

Underworld: Endless War

Wait. There was another movie? This animated short was apparently part of Underworld Collection Blu-ray edition. I do not have this collection but found it on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKz-GdsSEqw) as I was writing this article. The short is actually three 5 minutes shorts that are combined into one video on YouTube making it possible for me to watch before I completed this article. Like the Underworld (unrated) version, this is worth a single watch but not necessary for the collection. Kate Beckinsale does voice Selene but not really story is added to the franchise with this short.

Underworld: Awakening

The story picks up after the events in Evolution. This film felt like it spent more time on computer special effects than it did on story. When it first came out, I enjoyed it very much as with any franchise we can go back to a world we like. Watching it this time, I was a little more critical. The story was still original and did show how humans would react when they eventually discover the hidden world of vampires and Lycans. It just felt like they just wanted to use the name in order to make money making this one of the bottom two movies in the series.

Underworld: Blood Wars

Unlike the other movies that were only three years apart, we had to wait four years for this sequel. The story revolves around a fight for the blood of Selene's daughter who is not even in the film. If you are confused by that, then you are on the right track what I felt might have been the problem with this film. Again, more focus on computer special effects than story. Again, I had waited years for a sequel and enjoyed it more the first time than this last time. Am I being critical of these last two movies? Possibly. This film does provide a conclusion to Selene's story (I hope). Will they make another movie? It made money so it is very possible but I hope not since I feel they have completed Selene's story and adding more films to the series will most like not add to the story.

Rating

The first three films are definitely HD movies. The last two films are SD movies. They would be worth picking up in HD for less than $5 each or the series for $20. Ironically, digital copies came with the last two movies so I own them in HD. I had the first three plus the unrated on DVD and was cheap by converting them to SD for $2 with disc to digital.

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