Underworld

Release Date: September 19, 2003
Studio: Screen Gems (Sony)
Director: Len Wiseman
Screenwriter: Danny McBride
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen, Kevin Grevioux, Shane Brolly, Robby Gee, Erwin Leder, Wentworth Miller, Sophia Myles
Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for violence/gore and some language)
Official Website: SonyPictures.com

Plot Summary: "Underworld" reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city's underbelly. The balance of power is upset when a beautiful young Vampire and a nascent Lycan - deadly rivals for centuries - fall in love. Len Wiseman directs Kate Beckinsdale and Scott Speedman in a fast-paced, modern-day tale of deadly action, ruthless intrigue and forbidden love, all set against the backdrop of an ancient feud between the two tribes in a timeless, Gothic metropolis.

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2003
- You'll need a survivor pack

The title "Underworld" sounds as vague as what you get from this – an uninvolving episode of the perpetual war between werewolves and vampires.

The gravity of the event is punctuated by the overacting of the characters who seemingly know the importance of such a time but the audience is left wondering.

The war in question is played against the fictitious gothic underbelly of society; the camera does not roam from the setting, a darkly photographed hue of opaque blues and explosions of intermittent special effects frenzy. Selene (Beckinsdale) is the vampire who wants to rescue Corvin (Speedman), a human, from the werewolves. Corvin is the latest genetic hot pool: by altering his genes he can become a hybrid of werewolf and vampire, a handy ally in the battle for either side, but he doesn’t want a bar of it.

It sounds good on paper, but the outworking is sometimes confusing when vampire jargon contends for audience brain space. Blade 2, another vampire flick, stuck to the basics – an easy to understand story for non-members or fans and plenty of solid pleasing on the eye action to keep the general populace happy.

"Underworld" makes you think "so what" – it doesn’t hook you in. The characters are not relatable so to be distant, especially Bill Nighy’s pretentious performance of the one-dimensional vampire lord Viktor. Shane Brolly’s angry grimaces and flashing of teeth may induce empathy from cats, but not from humans. The attention on style and occasional forays into unintelligible montage editing also helps to distract us so that we don’t care about their predicaments.

The first thirty minutes is like sophisticated stylistics from the television advertising world where moody and brooding actors are adornments for a booming bass soundtrack and quick edits. What’s missing is the hook – they’re not actually advertising a perfume or designer clothing, but it feels like they’re presenting it as the build-up to a clever commercial punch line. When we don’t get there it’s a let down. In fact there isn’t a sustaining quality to keep one engrossed anyhow. Later, when you start to notice the storyline more than the form, it has lost credibility. Since this brings undue attention onto its style rather than the story you’re left with less than a film, which looks like a self-conscious gimmick that is trying hard to be something. Call it try-hard.

"Underworld" lacks, however, in the places that could make it better – a greater lucidity and flow of narrative, greater development of plot and character, and self-controlled aesthetic. Blade 2 did it much better. That was engaging and effective in its punchy style and to a lesser degree storyline although its mainstay was action, unlike "Underworld" which includes action but doesn’t execute it. Michael Sheen (The Four Feathers, Wilde) as Lucian and Scott Speedman induce the only sympathetic and believable performances, but the damage is already done.