LOS ANGELES, Dec 28 — Werewolves, vampires, leathers and guns — it can only be the Underworld franchise, back for another crack at ridding the world of monstrous danger.

Who’s in it and what’s it about?

Kate Beckinsale returns to lead the Underworld franchise through another adventure in which vampires and werewolves hurl themselves anew into an eternal struggle, this time with a snowy, Nordic theme.

A formidable warrior accustomed to pursuing werewolves (referred to as Lycans,) Selene is now being hunted by both vampires and werewolves, who believe that her blood — and that of her lost daughter — holds the key to creating an even more powerful being.

There are plenty of new faces brought onboard the franchise for Blood Wars, but Theo James (the Divergent films) is a prominent link between this and fourth film Underworld: Awakening as Selene’s friend David. Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, The Imitation Game) reprises his role as David’s father.

In addition we have Tobias Menzies of Outlander, Lara Pulver from True Blood and Spooks, Bradley James of iZombie, James Faulkner (Bridget Jones’s Diary), Daisy Head (Guilt), Peter Andersson (Sweden’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Trent Garrett (All My Children).

Who’s behind it?

Underworld: Blood Wars represents a directorial debut for Anna Foerster. But the German-American came over from award-winning TV series Criminal Minds and Outlander, and she has worked as a director of photography or second unit director on Independence Day, Pitch Black, White House Down, The Day After Tomorrow, and Aeon Flux, among others.

Cory Goodman of Priest and The Last Witch Hunter and Kyle Ward of Machete Kills wrote the story together, with Goodman turning it into a screenplay.

Is it any good?

Critically speaking, it’s awful — a 6 per cent approval rating on from a 4/10 average from reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes attests to that, though Underworld: Blood Wars fares better on IMDb, with a 6.3/10 user average from 4,700 scores.

But focusing on review scores misses the point. This is the place to be for all manner of blue-filtered, leather clad butt-kickers delivering one-liners in posh English accents, and never has an Underworld movie failed to at least double its money at the box office, with some even tripling or quadrupling their production budgets.

When’s it out?

Awaiting release in the US and Canada from January 6, 2017, Underworld: Blood Wars has already performed well in Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Australia following earlier debuts.

Japan follows on January 7, and Blood Wars opens in the UK and Ireland from January 13.

Trailers & Social

Official trailer: youtu.be/rKHL5PyAPzs, facebook.com/UnderworldMovie/videos/1564560813570069

Facebook page: facebook.com/UnderworldMovie

Instagram account: instagram.com/UnderworldMovie

Twitter feed: twitter.com/UnderworldMovie — AFP-Relaxnews