UNDERWORLD (2003)

UNDERWORLD (2003)

Tagline – An Immortal Battle For Supremacy

In this one, Selene (played by Kate Beckinsale), a vampire assassin (death dealer), is entrenched in a war between vampire and Lycan races. Lycans are basically werewolves that don’t need the moon and know what they did when they change back into human form. Although Selene is aligned with the vampires for no good reason at all, she falls in love with Michael. This dude has recently become a hybrid lycan and has ties to the original vampire and lycan bloodline. So you know…she can really pick em. 

This film opens up with an awesome action scene with Selene and a few other death dealers chasing lycans in a subway station but does take some deep breaths as the story progresses. In the middle we learn some more details about the war, Selene’s relationship with Viktor, and the corruption of the vampire clan. The groundwork we get in this thing is a world-building master class. When I say “master” I mean it would be the best class to take, no matter who you are or what your background is, I don’t mean whatever social implication the word comes with these days. 

Underworld introduces some great common sense ideas. 1. Vampires lie. You just simply cannot trust them. If they say they don’t know where your other sock is…they are just deceiving you. They know.

2. Vampires will side with anyone if it means getting power. Not to give away anything, but just keep that tidbit in mind. 3. Kate Beckinsale speaks perfect English. That little item seems to have been completely lost when she was hired to play the role of Anna in VAN HELSING where they are trying to be super pc or whatever and force her to voice the role in Romanian. (I think it’s Romanian she was going for). 

Design-wise I wish the crew had given the Lycans longer, “HOWLING”, like ears, but outside of that, everything in this movie is pretty amazing. BE WARNED, there is a massive amount of blood and violence in this thing and it’s not for kids. Also, almost all of this movie, if not all of it, is shot at night with poor lighting for those who have issues seeing in the dark.

Overall this thing gets a 4 out of 7. It does a great job of re-launching the vampire action genre and is stunning overall, but it is one of the least interesting movies in its own series. I also wish they would have injected at least 2 seconds of humor into this movie. Even the Resident Evil series managed to do that. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SCREEN GEMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.