Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Concepts, Incredibly Poor Execution
Review: It's a shame, really. The foundation concepts of 2003's *Underworld*, on the page at least, indicate a genuine neo-Victorian epic. In brief: a blood-feud war between vampires and werewolves; the viral strains of these outcasts and the possible intermingling of abomination-breeds; the historical elements detailing the cause of the conflict: although not exactly new or original, the alchemic combination of these ideas suggest vast potential, and practically beg for an expert treatment such as that given the recent blockbuster phenomenon of Lord of the Rings. Alas, this film comes off rather a harrowing example of squandered opportunities and inept direction, the dismal end-result of rigorous conformity to the ethic of 'style over substance.' A breakdown of the major faults: STORY: The core concepts are modern-era mythic (always a plus) and brim with melodramatic possibility, but the actual script execution is muddled and/or obtuse, structural information delivered either too sparsely or without the necessary passion; the dialogue flat, unoriginal and uninspired, and so, so deathly serious. The Vampires come off as lethargic [perhaps the result of conqueror's indolence?] weaklings [inexcusable for supposed 'immortals'] who have to rely on gunplay to dispatch their enemies - all in all a nice excuse to ape the Matrix to the hilt. DIRECTION/CINIMATOGRAPHY: Technically, this film is a murky mess, with all the usual suspects included: MTV editing, sloppy framing and the occasionally horrid angle-confusion, an enormous overuse of digital grading. Nearly the entire film is colored in nighttime blue, which becomes increasingly dull and stullifying as the story grinds towards its predictable peak (at least the Wachoski Bros. are aware of the power of contrasting colors); when coupled with the aggrandizing camera shots, the excess of shadow, the choppy editing to 'excite' (and hide), alongside some laughable moments of CGI, Underworld is a textbook example of how to attempt an epic via style over substance - and ultimately fail in engaging the participant. ACTION: Blood-pumping? Nail-biting? Jaw-dropping? Sorry, none of the above. I couldn't help but play "spot the influence" to overcome the threatening sleep-tides of ennui. A snippy smattering of the famous action sequences Underworld blatantly rips off: The Matrix (obvious), The Matrix Reloaded (Trinity bullet-time flip), Terminator 2 (chase scene), X-Men 1 (Beckinsale's inexplicable swoon/car crash), Equilibrium (face slide), Blade 2 (final showdown). And even when the film is not engaging in full-blown celluloid plagiarism, the action sequences suffer from weak pacing, poor editing and some absolute incompetence regarding weaponry and combat-tactics. The scene where a nameless vamp takes on a lycin with two bullwhips is a prominent example. Instead of using the whips to debilitate his foe (uprooting a leg, dislocation of an arm, spinning the whip around the neck to choke or at least attempt dominance of), the vamp simply swings both whips around in an impressive but ultimately futile grandstanding display of practice-strokes, and pays the price accordingly. It looks cool, but fails to elect any sort of tension or violent 'rush' -again, style over substance. ACTING: Some actors/actresses are able to overcome the shoddy character-building or trite dialogue of a mediocre script by way of sheer charisma or craft-experience. Kate Beckinsale, reported to be a talented actress, is not one of those rare paragons of dramatic impersonation. There's little required for Beckinsale other than the twin stoic reliance of serious/slightly pouty; she isn't given the time or dialogue to sell her tragic past, and the chemistry between her and Speedman is nearly non-existent. Her character is essentially her leather outfit, cute bob haircut, and twin firepower skills - in other words, style over substance. Scott Speedman's doctor/lychin, meanwhile, remains passive throughout, thrown into one situation after another like any stereo-archetypical "chosen one", a rote mold made all the more boring by the Matrix Reloaded's expert deconstruction of the savior/slave role. The fellow who plays Victor chews the scenery with gusto and adds a much-welcome dollop of humor to this bleak affair, while 'Kraven' tries to do the same and his howlingly-bad performance jars the viewing experience. I always give credit where credit is due: the film looks marvelous given its relatively measly budget of $23 million, and several of the core concepts were initially promising. The potential was there. But the astonishingly poor execution from those involved rendered this vampire tale flatline on delivery. If you must, eat fistfuls of garlic before braving a view of *Underworld* - the subsequent hyper-jolt might actually make this more the sum of its incompetent parts.
Rating: 
Summary: A great idea gone very bad.
Review: Underworld has a great premise with the conflict of Vampire and Werewolves fighting over domination but while it's a good premise, it needs a story to support it, and if you don't have a good story then you don't really have anything. The movie is more style than substance, and while style is good, it can also ruin a movie if you don't have anything to back it up. Kate Beckinsale and company do their best with what is giving but even their best efforts can't hide the fact that the story feels like it was written on the fly, and rush into production with out a good rewrite to help punch up the script. On top of that, the special effects are of not top quality, and you can see that in the way the Werewolves look and move. You really don't them at all, and when you do, it's very brief and mostly in the dark. With better special effects, and a real story that made sense, this could have been the ultimate Action/ Horror movie but because they decided to cheap out on both the story and effects, we have this travesty
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent
Review: This is a thriller with a brain. I enjoyed the suspense. Some scenes were gory but overall the violence wasn't gratuitous. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Give me Blade anyday!
Review: Take Blade and add most of The Crow and The Matrix and you have this. The latter two I didn't particularly enjoy and Underworld was just as dull and messy as the trailer made it out to be. Amidst a clutter of cliched sets, impossible to differentiate from each other, and heavily overused lightning and rain (I'm sure there are OTHER ways of creating a gothic atmosphere) an uninteresting and meandering plot slowly fizzles to life. Apparently Vampires and Werewolves have been fighting for years but a couple of them want the war to end. But with no indication of who is good and bad and the lack of a clearly defined hero there's no way to engage with the characters and no reason to care what happens to them. The SFX are of the jumping thru the air in slow motion while spinning and shooting and doing the laundry variety. Nothing you haven't seen a zillion times before. It wasn't interesting the first hundred times I saw it and this movie is no exception. As you might expect from a movie of this sort, the music is nothing but someone murdering a thrash metal guitar. It's just noise and chaos that matches the incoherent blur onscreen. Many elements of this film lead to exciting possibilities but they've all been thrown away in favor of easy trash. Technically efficient it may well be but Underworld is a failure on every other level. And what's with the title. At no point in the entire movie is there interaction with the 'real' world. Just a load of running around in sewers and darkly lit mansion corridors. The sense of having an insight into a world that is not meant to be seen by human eyes is non-existent. Even the kidnapped human acts as if the discovery of Vampires and Werewolves is nothing to out of the ordinary. Highlyclichedlookinggothicmovieworld would have been a more appropriate title. The one star is purely for Kate Beckinsdale in a leather outfit. I have the DTS Region 3 edition of this movie. It has a great DTS soundtrack (wow, now can really appreciate the mind-numbingly loud sound effects and awful music). And the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture is super. But no matter how good looking it is, Underworld is still terrible.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT-looking movie... but don't look too closely
Review: I am a sucker for vampire movies. Ever since we "learned" that vampires aren't the slow, lurching beasties of Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee films, it's been a film genre that guarantees some good eye-candy. So I watch all the vampire movies I can find, and even go so far as to buy a few here and there. Also, I am a huge dork, and am not afraid to admit it. I watch movies with flawed premises, shrink-wrapped babes, and extremely expensive cars/guns/computers. So, on the dork front, this movie's a winner. Kate Beckinsale is a hot shrink-wrapped vampire chick who drives an expensive car, carries some exotic weaponry and for no good reason has some high-quality survailance equipment. There are swords for no good reason, and dark, moodily-lit sets. Very cool. With all that coolness going on, the movie didn't really need a plot, or any depth, or even much action. The actors weren't terrible; they just weren't given much to work with. The plot seemed to involve an attempt to justify the existence of vampires and werewolves based on not dying of Black Death, and finding someone with the exact same blood as that one lucky fellow -- who, luckily, has a very similar name. It also involves a "Death Dealer" (possibly the lamest pseudo-badass job title ever imagined) who decides that the guy she's supposed to kill isn't all that bad after all, and she'd really rather kill vampires anyway. Said decision is made for virtually no reason at all. I do give the film credit for dovetailing the flashbacks and recollections to piece together the backstory in a reasonable way. The pacing of that series of revelations is a little off, but there's not much story to tell, so you really can't expect a smooth ride. Unfortunately, the "twists" were painfully easy to predict, so the editing and directing of those scenes gets a bit overlooked, even though it's quite good. So, there are problems with the way the movie works. Fine. I don't care, so long as it looks nice. And "Underworld" looks very nice most of the time. Cool stunts, neat effects, decent sets, solid (though cliche) costuming, and all the guns you could ever want. But don't get me started on the guy with the whips. List of things I'm tired of, that appeared in "Underworld."
1) Young, hip, good-looking doctors with long hair and five-o'clock-shadow.
2) "Oops! I didn't notice my head had been cut off!"
3) Rain.
4) Vampires being huge, whimpering wusses.
5) Wondering exactly how many rounds were in that magazine, anyway. Buy it if you're like me, and into things that look neat. But if you're even more A-R than I am, steer clear, 'cause there are enough flaws here to keep you grinding your teeth for a month.
Rating:
Summary: Good movie...
Review: This movie of the underworld with vampires and werewolves is visually very successful. The story is interesting and the little anti-racist twist is nice. A must see fantasy movie for those who like the genre.
Rating: 
Summary: A must watch
Review: This is a must watch, especially for folks into the White-Wolf world. Underworld was not made by White-Wolf however it is much like the world White-Wolf has created. This is best seen in widescreen, on a 60 inch DLP with Dolby 5.1 surround... However, it is worth watching on ANY tv...
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful waste of potentially wonderful idea
Review: 'Underworld' tells the tale of Selene, a huntress involved with the dynastic struggle for power that exists between the Vampire and the Werewolf. She uncovers dastardly plots and Vampiric civil unrest as she strives to protect mortal Michael from the biological machinations of the Werewolves. Directed by Len Wiseman, 'Underworld' is an excellent idea for a movie, and strong performances come from Kate Beckinsale as Selene, Michael Sheen as Lucien and Bill Nighy as Viktor. It's also a hugely visual film, with gothic interiors and neo-noir direction beautifully capturing the feel of two ancient races locked in a modern struggle for supremacy. Excellent special effects and some truly gorgeous fight sequences (and thankfully, no matrix-esque posturing here!) all add to the excellent visual impression made by this picture. So where does it go wrong? Well, first of all it takes some wonderful ideas (like UV bullets, cross-breeding and technologically-advanced settings) and totally negates them with ridiculous plotlines about Vampires being able to fall pregnant and Werewolves being able to expel silver bullets. Surely the first rule of authenticity is not to rewrite the rules? When such huge changes are wrought on some of our most beloved myths we will reject them, but when they are done with such a crude, offhand manner it's unacceptable. It totally negates any credibility the film could have had. Similarly, the explanation behind why Vampires and Werewolves could cross-breed is presented to us in such a cliched, hackneyed way that it's just not inkeeping with the aesthetics of the movie. And unfortunately, for this reviewer, that;s the overall and lasting impression left on me by 'Underworld'. A truly wonderful idea with decent performances and gorgeous settings, totally overshadowed by its own foolish script and legend-tinkering. A horrible waste of essentially a fantastic idea. One to avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Wanting more.
Review: Yes we'll have to say that Underworld has a lot of faults. From the story line of the elders being really fuzzy to the vampires themselves being, lets face it, a little weak. And how many bullets does a handgun clip hold? Up to 13 for a .40. How come during some firing scenes with Selene I was reminded of the movie "Commando" where Arnold never seemed to run out of bullets in one clip? But I admired Danny McBride's vision of what it would be like to have an actual conflict between two great species. The only problem is that we need a bunch of holes filled within the story line to make things more interesting. That means we need a sequel that surpasses this one. Overall I have to say even though you could pick Underworld apart it was very enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Good, But Not Great
Review: First of all this movie tackled a very hard plot about a war that has existed between vampires and lycans(werewolves) for many years. I thought they did a really good job considering the unbelievable plot that they tackled. The character development in the movie was fair but it seemed as if at times the acting was a little bit to melodramatic. The movie focused mainly on the vampire culture and did not focus much on the werewolves. The graphics were excellent and the werewolves looked great. I recommend that you rent this before you buy it, it is a great DVD to watch but you may want to review it yourself before purchasing.
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