Vampires in leather. Werewolves dressed as street people. Matrix-like slow-motion action sequences. Incredibly beautiful people doing the unthinkable. And lots and lots of posing, posturing and preening. It might sound like I’m degrading Underworld for its many derivative elements. In fact, I probably should be. But, for some reason, I enjoyed it.
You see, vampires and werewolves are locked in an age-old war with each other for control of the night. Celene (Kate Beckinsale) is a vampire death-dealer. Her job is to kill Lycans (werewolves), plain and simple. One night, she trails two Lycans into the subway who appear to be following a human named Michael (Scott Speedman). Lycans avoid contact with humans, so she’s intrigued about why they’d be trailing one. Seeking Michael out, she finds that he possesses a secret that may take the war between the vampires and the Lycans to a new level.
First-time director Len Wiseman opens the film with a really confusing action sequence that made me wonder if I’d missed something. There’s nearly 10 minutes — maybe more — before a single line of dialogue is uttered on-screen. (There is a voice-over introduction that manages to provide just enough information to keep you from being completely lost.) After that, Underworld settles down into a pattern of making characters walk through scenes like runway models, recite some pretty ridiculous dialogue and act very moody.
Underworld is many things but boring it is not. There is plenty of action — mainly of the gun-fight variety — and that makes the film seem a heck of a lot shorter than its 120 minute running time. I must admit I was quite surprised to see that it only cost $23 million to film. That’s a relatively low budget for a movie that contains as many special effects goodies as this one. The sets are particularly impressive as well. This is basically a goth’s wet dream on film.
When Underworld was released in theaters this past summer, it was hung, drawn and quartered by critics who thought it was too shallow and too devoid of character development. Well, duh. This is an action film and a pretty good one. It is not going to win awards of any type for performances or originality of any sort but it’s a pretty exciting and engaging action film that’s perfect for a night of popcorn-chomping with friends who like to yell at the characters on-screen. It’s dumb, it’s loud and it’s easy on the eyes. I enjoyed it for exactly those three reasons.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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