Rating: 
Summary: "Our war has waged for centuries, unseen by human eyes."
Review: For several hundred years, vampires and lycans (werewolves) have fought a long war. Most of the vampires don't understand why they are at war, but believe that they have nearly wiped out the lycans, or have they? Thus begins the 2003 film "Underworld", which was under the direction of Len Wiseman in his directorial and authorial debut. He co-wrote the film's story with Kevin Grevioux and Danny McBride, who also both played the characters Raze (a fierce lycan) and Mason respectively and were two of the film's associate producers. The lead character in the film, a vampire soldier named Selene, is played by the actress Kate Beckinsale, who is remembered for playing the leading female character in the melodramatic 2001 film "Pearl Harbor". As a soldier, Selene is known as a Death Dealer. She and her fellow Death Dealers are armed with machine guns that fire silver bullets. The lycans are similarly armed, but use ultraviolet light-emitting bullets instead. Whereas most of the lycans appear to have fighting skills, most of the vampires seemingly spend their time lounging about. The film begins with a skirmish between Selene, who is accompanied by another Death Dealer, and two lycans who she discovers are following a human named Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman). Michael escapes, but Selene becomes engrossed with understanding why the lycans are so interested in him. With total disregard to leading vampire Kraven's (Shane Brolly) disapproval, Selene captures Michael, but the leading lycan, named Lucian (Michael Sheen), also catches up with him and bites him. Hence, Michael begins to transform into a lycan, but Selene's continued interest in him develops into something else. She also discovers a lot more about her own history, the history of vampires and lycans, Lucian's plans, and the leading vampire in which she places the greatest trust, Viktor (Bill Nighy). Though the plot of "Underworld" is thin, it is unique in its portrayal of the relationship between the two popular mythological creatures of vampires and werewolves. The on-screen fights, special effects and action are entertaining, and the dark and nearly achromatic cinematography used nearly throughout the film's 121 minutes maintains an infernal atmosphere. The off-screen action is also interesting as Michael Sheen is Kate Beckinsale's former boyfriend with whom she conceived a child several years ago, and she is now Len Wiseman's fiancée. Memorable on-screen scenes include the opening skirmish, Selene with Michael, skirmishes with Lucian, raising Viktor, and the last 30 minutes (or so) of the film. Notable special effects include the werewolf transformations, Michael's transformations and the extra-human abilities that the vampires and werewolves have. The most annoying character in the film is Kraven. Overall, I rate "Underworld" with 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded to 4 stars. From the film's ending, it is easy to deduce that a sequel may be in the works.
Rating: 
Summary: It was entertaining, but not great.
Review: A semi-stylish, only-okay action/monster movie with a muddled plot about werewolves-vs.-vampires and stuff. It's okay, though: the film moves fairly fast, and Kate Beckinsale looks great in all those tight leather/vinyl jumpsuits. It's no "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," but it was okay for a no-brainer rental. It was lame, though, that so much of the action was just people -- um, I mean, monsters -- standing around shooting a bunch of automatic rifles and pistols... We already see plenty of that in all the non-monster movies; didn't need it here so much.
Rating: 
Summary: There is only one reason to watch this movie.
Review: _Underworld_ features a confrontation between rival clans of vampires and werewolves (called "Lycans" in the movie) in a dark cityscape (supposedly Budapest, apparently) supposedly over the evils of miscegenation between the races. Whatever. Anyway, this movie was pretty bad. The plot was nonexistent and the story didn't make sense. So why am I giving this movie 5 stars? Well there is only one reason to watch this movie. And that is for Kate Beckinsale - dressed all in black with a black leather trench coat, she's so snazzy! :) In fact, if you get sick of the rambling story, the nonexistent acting, and the lame dialogue, I recommend you just turn off the sound and watch Kate in peace - running around and looking cool. Bravo Kate!
Rating:
Summary: Yeah it sucked but....
Review: Well, the story was sad. I like vampire and werewolf stories but this one really sucked. What really bugged me was the fact that the vampires looked really pathetic compared to the werewolves. Werewolves made huge physical transformations and the vamps just hissed. ... But that aside, I did enjoy Kate, Scott Speedman irks me a little (can't get over his Felicity role), and the romeo juliet this just bit. It was well produced (visually nice) and for that, Kate, and the guy who played Lucien, I give it 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Kate Beckinsale......get it on
Review: after reading some of the other reviews which slamed this movie i took a gamble and decided to check it out for myself. maybe the fact that I was not expecting a great film created the situation that I really enjoyed this movie, end result money well spent.good film to add to my collection.As a final note if you enjoyed this movie you must see 28 days later, Dog soliders and finaly Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing but visually stunning
Review: I really wanted to like this movie - I'm a vampire fan and werewolf buff - but it was so badly paced, and some of the acting was so horrendous that it just killed it for me. The dark mood and visual effects were artful, following in the footsteps of "The Matrix," and the concept had possibilities, but the slow parts of the film were not intriguing enough to hold my interest.
Rating: 
Summary: Bordem included.......
Review: Kate Beckinsale is hot, Kate in leather pants is hotter, and Kate kicking butt is an arousal overload. All these ingredients come together in Underworld, by first time feature dirctor Len Wiseman, and they mix up to offer you boring and somewhat stuipd movie. And Kate still looks hot. This isn't Wisman's fault. His directing is good enough to give the movie it's artistic and style flare but it isn't good enough to save it. The movie is simply to weighed down by, dumb f/x, a lame story that's been done before and better, a sorry excuse for a love triangle, and some only OK action sequences. The action is what should have seld this movie. This movie shares a lot from Blade. Only where Blade one mixes a good solid story with cool people, Underworld fails. Where Blade 2 pumps up the action, leading up to the most intense fights in recent action movies, Underworld simply falls flat. Underworld does have its share of action but they simply don't do anything new, or anything that is heartpumping, nor anything that is simply cool. Leave this one buried.
Rating: 
Summary: "Blunderworld"
Review: Wow, a Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves... "Underworld" looked like it was going to be great, but it was a huge disappointment. The story has been overkilled so many times. The action lacks style. The special effects weren't very special. A kindergartner can draw better werewolves with his or her foot. I'm sorry, but do not watch this waste.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful theme, if you can get past the mud
Review: The trailer's theme of "which side will you choose?" actually prompted me to not waste the $10 + in the movie theater; I finally opted to rent the movie on DVD. Initially, I refrained from my attempt to turn off the player after 10 minutes, 20, 30; I had hoped that there was a good storyline in the end. Turns out, it wasn't so bad after all. I truly adored the Lycan attempt for peace by creating a hybrid species -- indeed, an attempt stemmed by the love between Lucian and Sonia, the vampyric daughter of Viktor. This melding is further paralled by the attraction (not really love) between Selene and Michael. Unfortunately, I felt the story is muddied by the mortal battling with guns (although the speciess-specific bullets were a cool idea), and the overemphasis on the war. Selene's handguns sounding like AK47s were a little much. More time should have been spent on the history of the war: what few scenes shown were done so rather sketchily, with a purposed blur. Kudos to Kevin Grevioux (Raze) for the genetic species idea (Kevin's genetic engr. background is indicated in the special features section) and to Michael Sheen (Lucian), who really has the only character that shows any emotion. The movie leaves room for a sequel; I might be willing to entertain, but perhaps may wait again for the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Booooooooooooooooo
Review: This movie blows big bloody chunks. Don't believe what the trailers say about this movie. They make you believe that this film is about a on going war between Vampires and Werewolves...Lycans, with a Romeo and Juilet twist. All lies. The so called Vampires are just people with pointy teeth and the Werewolves...oops I mean Lycans are just weird mutants. The so called Romeo and Juilet love story is nothing of the sort, you get the idea that they kinda MAYBE *like* each other but nothing worth sticking your neck out over. They have zero chemistry, zero attaction and ZERO love. The plot is as thin as a greasy piece of paper, there's no real character development and you can hardly understand what the heck is going on cause all they do is show flashy images and people...oops I mean "vampires" and were-- "Lycans" SHOOTING each other up. The movie tries to be as action packed as the Matrix and fails and as cool as Blade and fails even worse. It barely even held my attention. I was going to give the movie two stars for the set and costume designs et al, but that's what's wrong with this movie and every other movie like it. Films that rely on cool backgrounds, camera tricks and costumes instead of great writing and acting. I will no longer give extra points just because some art director managed to put together a great color scheme for a big room where a bunch of boring events take place. I don't watch films for decorating tips I watch to be entertained and to lose myself in a great story, this movie provided none of that and therefore I took away my star, I only wish I could take the other one away too.
|
