This might sound a little harsh, but Kate Beckinsale is a great action star that generally tends to appear in mediocre action movies. The actress has kicked plenty of onscreen ass over the years, and is never anything less than totally watchable, but the projects that surround her tend to leave a lot to be desired.
She headlined all five entries in the Underworld franchise and was the best thing about the series by a mile, offering a steely mix of combat expertise and emotional vulnerability, but none of the vampire/werewolf mashups could be called great cinema. Similarly, she was good value in the overcooked and underwhelming Van Helsing, and appeared to be the only member of the cast having fun in the Total Recall remake.
Beckinsale proves it yet again in Amazon’s new release Jolt, which is about as formulaic as high concept action gets from both a narrative and visual perspective, but she’s an absolute riot as the violent and creatively foul-mouthed Lindy. She deserves a vehicle truly fitting of her talents, and in a new interview the 48 year-old admitted she’d still love to do the Blade crossover she was once touting for Underworld.
“I really wanted them to do an Underworld/Blade mashup. What a duo that would be. I would definitely do that, but I think they just wanted to reboot Blade as Blade so they didn’t go for it.”
While that almost certainly isn’t going to happen given that Wesley Snipes hasn’t suited up as the Daywalker for seventeen years, and Mahershala Ali’s Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot only just hired a director, it would have been catnip for fans of the leather-clad fantasy subgenre a decade or so ago. Ties to Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil and forgotten flop I, Frankenstein were also previously mooted for Underworld, but it looks like both the brand and Blade crossover are both dead in the water.