Another instalment - not bad, not great

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2012)

In this 4th instalment of the ongoing war between vampires and lycans (aka werewolves), the conflict spreads to the extent that humans step in and attempt to wipe out both groups. The survivors go underground, and hot vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) gets caught, waking up 12 years later in a laboratory. The key new plot element here is that she now turns out to have given birth to a daughter ( a vampire/lycan hybrid like her father Michael), which means that scientists are looking to harvest her and, well, it's tosh, isn't it?
But it's quite entertaining tosh, and it goes in enough of a new direction to keep you interested. Once again, Kate Beckinsale looks sexy and slinky in tight oiled black leather, and moves well in the action sequences of which there are a lot, albeit not so many that they undermine story. Stephen Rea plays a creepy scientist, Charles Dance is underused as a vampire coven leader, and India Eisley was quite effective as hybrid daughter Eve.
The black and blue colour palette is used once more to its fullest extent, there is a moderate amount of gore, the script is functional, and if you enjoyed the others then it is likely that you will enjoy this one. Conversely...