The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema The Big & Small Screen
WHAT a start to the year! For all the promise Vin Diesel showed in the run up to the start of the year — what with the releases of “XXX-The return of Xander Cage” and “The Fate of the Furious” — everything pointed to this being the year of the Vin!
Now, almost two months down line, I guess everything has not gone according to plan. “XXX-The Return of Xander Cage” was a total bust despite the US$152 million the film has grossed worldwide. It does not look good for his upcoming release either.
The jury is still out on the “Fast and the Furious” new instalment out April 14, but I would not hold my breath for a spellbinding thrill-ride as promised.
It has not been all gloom and doom, though.
There is still the Marvel triple-threat “Guardian of the Galaxy-Vol 2”, “Thor-Ragnarok” and the “Spiderman-Homecoming” movie to look forward to. Also on the good news department, we have the rumoured last entries to the “Resident Evil” and “Underworld” franchises.
And oh, did I mention that Ben Affleck has relinquished the directorial duties for the upcoming DC Comic projects. Word has it that he might even give up the role of Batman.
After the lifeless performance that was Affleck’s take on the caped crusader, I really hope that he follows through. Now, back to the business of the day.
One of the things I was really looking forward to, this year, was the rumoured last instalment of arguably the worst movie franchises on the face of the planet. For those confused, I am talking about the inevitable conclusions to the “Underworld” and “Resident Evil” stories.
I am yet to watch “Resident Evil-Final Chapter”, which was released last month, and so will reserve my review to only “Underworld”.
“Underworld-Blood Wars” is the story about a hybrid Vampire who is stuck in the middle of a war between her species and a clan of werewolves called the Lycans. Since the movie premièred back in 2003, we have seen our heroine Selene (Kate Beckinsale) as she fought for her freedom, fell in love, had a baby and fought dark forces both from within her clan and outside.
Now, the war between these creatures of the night has reached its peak and Selene now finds herself fighting wars on two fronts. On one hand, there is Marius (Tobias Menzies), the new Lycan leader, whose smarts and astute military prowess threatens to tilt the war in the werewolves’ favour and on the other there is Semira (Lara Pluver) who hates Selene and thirsts for the power to rule her people.
Both camps believe Selene is the key to victory, as her hybrid blood will give them power to rule over both tribes.
For her, Selene simply wants to be left alone to grieve for her child whom she gave up to protect her.
However, both her Vampire brethren and the werewolves are after her to find the location of her child whose blood will give them the power to overcome the other.
The synopsis above had all the makings of a brilliant “conclusion” to the story had writers Cory Goodman and Kyle Ward had some sort of imagination and given the story some flesh. What they did instead was fail dismally to mask their laziness and simply implied one too many false twists and turns in the story.
The result is a half-baked, shoddy and lame film that fails to do justice to the four films before it. But Goodman and Ward are not the only people at fault here.
Director Anna Foerster, who had done such a commendable job in the four films before, also fell victim to laziness and lack of imagination. The CGI is bad, the fight sequences ruined by bad camera choices, slow motion and close-up angles.
There is no character development whatsoever, no performances of note and the diction really does a splendid job in isolating the audience from the film. Beckinsale, much like Milla Jovovich in the “Resident Evil” films, is the heart and soul of this movie and much of the movie’s merits heavily rely on her carrying everybody and everything else.
They set her up to fail. The worst part here is that none of the guys behind the camera appeared to know this and as such they neglected her character.
Yes, Beckinsale totally owns every scene she is in, every line she utters and every fight scene she is involved in. Had she been given some decent material, maybe we would be having a different discussion or review right now.
Pluver is the embodiment of the femme fatale her Serima character requires of her.
Unfortunately she is inevitably let down by poor writing. The US$78 million that the film is believed to have earned worldwide suits this hogwash, and I am being kind here.
Marius is another villain that could have prospered tremendously from competent writers. Unfortunately, he lacks a proper backstory, development and motivation.
I can never say this enough but the key to a successful film lies solely on the proper treatment of both its antagonists and protagonist.
Look at how successful “The Dark Knight” turned out to be. Heath Slater’s take on the joker was revolutionary and one would be forgiven for forgetting that this was actually a batman film. Yes, some might argue that he only got that Oscar because he died soon after the film, but no one will ever argue that he did not deserve it.
