Directed by:
Len WisemanScreenplay:
Danny McBrideCinematography:
Tony Pierce-RobertsComposer:
Paul HaslingerCast:
Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy, Sophia Myles, Robbie Gee, Wentworth Miller, Zita Görög, Andreas Patton, Erwin Leder (more)VOD (1)
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In UNDERWORLD, a dark and Gothic monster action movie, vampires and lycans--an ancient form of werewolf--are at war. While the vampires inhabit a gigantic castle that houses their ancestor's tombs, the lycans live underground in a dilapidated sewer cave. Both teams are equipped with big guns, and they are constantly innovating deadlier bullets to gain advantage over each other. On the vampire side, the leather-clad death agent Selene (Kate Beckinsale) delegates teams of vamps to attack the lycans. But when she discovers that the lycans have kidnapped a human medical student, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), she knows the worst is on its way. Against the orders of her superior, Kraven (Shane Brolly), who is obsessively in love with Selene, she awakens the most powerful vampire of all time, Viktor (Bill Nighy) and prepares for a massive feud against lycan leader Lucian (Michael Sheen). (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (11)
The key to Underworld is your level of tolerance for the screenplay that pretends to be serious but is actually naïve and unintentionally funny in places. Len Wiseman may have fulfilled a childhood dream, but he’s either forgotten about the more mature audience or he still has a pimply face himself. Even so, I can’t give this less than three stars, which is thanks to the spectacular production. The childishness is justified by the fury of the action scenes, the sets and mainly Kate Beckinsale’s sexy costume. If you’re not an admirer of Federico Fellini, the visual and aural aspects of this film will appeal to you more than its content will annoy you.
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I'm not saying it's a masterpiece, but in concept and treatment, Underworld certainly doesn't fall into the category of a purely "B" film: The sets, the art direction, the music, and the excellent action are the main pluses of this film, which otherwise flounders on its script. Underworld is far from being a sophisticated and intelligent vampire saga, but I was not bored, quite the opposite – I had a great time. A weaker 4 stars.
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We are in the 21st century, gone are the days of individualists with two fangs, now we have whole families of vampires and lycans who organize themselves almost like political parties and wage wars among themselves like mafiosi. Vampires with electronic equipment and a massive arsenal of weaponry are nothing like the pleasantly decadent vampires from, for example, Jordan's Interview with the Vampire. Sorry, Director Wiseman, I prefer the decadent ones, or the posh Count Dracula, who with all nonchalance digs his fangs into an artery and needs no laptops or liquid silver bullets to do it. For a ridiculously low budget of 20 million I was treated to some very impressive images in places, but that’s not everything, script-wise it was as scratchy as Kate's tight leather outfit while walking, the war between lycans and vampires full of machine gun shots didn't entertain me at all, nor did the plot around the blood mixing. Basically, there was nobody to root for. A lot of silly fun, really.
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This was alright. Kate in the corset and latex is decent at least. The purposefully colorized black-and-blue-and-white film is pleasing to the eye, but that's about all there is to say about it. Dramatically, it’s too straightforward, so the only films it can beat on points in its genre are the infamous Twilight saga films.
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Underworld is definitely not an extremely good film, but it is visually attractive, musically well-done, and sufficiently atmospheric. Kate Beckinsale fits snugly into her tight suit, and the only thing that really bothered me, and paradoxically diminished the film's cool factor, were the sometimes dull and unnecessary digital effects.
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