Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be checking out a horror movie from 2003. That movie is "Underworld".
Now, I know very little about this movie, let alone the entire series. I remember seeing a trailer for this movie back when they first aired on TV, and the only things I could remember from it is that it's a horror movie with a Gothic feel to it. Which might be interesting. In fact, I found this movie that came in a 4 movie combo pack which contains the first 4 movies in this franchise, which I plan on covering this month. So you'll have a pretty good idea of what's to come here.
Now aside from this being a Gothic horror movie series, I also know that most of them star Kate Beckinsale, who is featured on the front poster of this movie. And I also found out that the director for this movie, Len Wiseman, it's also his directorial debut. Mind you, this guy has not made a whole lot of films. Most of them come from this franchise. I noticed one other film he had made, which was that remake of "Total Recall" from 2012. Which I have heard nothing but horrible things about.
But leaving that aside for now, I'm sorta curious to find out if this movie series is even worth pursuing. I'm hoping that this first one is at least pretty good. I won't know for it is any good unless I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Underworld".
19 minutes later
Well, guys, I am gonna say this much about the movie. So far, I really like how it looks. It really gives off a unique vibe to this world. I just kinda wish the story and the characters were more interesting right now. This movie really hasn't given me much to work with since it started, but I'm gonna give it a chance here and see where it goes. Hopefully, it'll get more interesting soon.
20 minutes later
So, guys, I'm still waiting on this movie to give out anything resembling a likable character. Better yet, I'm still waiting for something resembling character development because, so far, I have yet to find a likable character out of this entire cast, and that includes our main character Selene. I just want to find a reason to care about any of these characters, so that I can get more invested into the story. And so far, I haven't been able to find that yet. I'm still hoping for this movie to get interesting soon, but given the rate this film's going, I'm not sure if it will happen or not.
20 minutes later
OK, guys, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we're finally learning about Selene's backstory about how she became what she is today. Bad news? It took the movie an hour to finally give us that backstory despite the film itself already being halfway over. The pacing in this movie is really kinda bad, guys.
11 minutes later
OK, while it's cool to see Selene finally being free, I have to ask why she didn't just break the window from before the blonde girl shut down the lights to the mansion? I mean, OK, sure, she probably wouldn't be able to have access to her car or guns, but at the same time, I feel as though she could've broke the window in the room where she was locked in. I know it's probably a trivial point, but it's still something I wanted to bring up.
13 minutes later
All right, well, that was a little too much blood he lost from a simple punch, but I will say at least that scientist is now dead, thankfully. So, at least he got his just desserts.
6 minutes later
So, guys, I just got to learn more about Lucien's backstory. And after learning it, it is honestly really kind of stupid. I'll get more into why later on, but I'm just gonna let you guys know now the reasons involving Lucien's backstory is honestly really stupid.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Underworld". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well, uh...where to start with this one? Honestly, it's gonna be hard to pin down this one, guys. I will say this much, the movie isn't all that bad, it's just a very flawed movie. And it starts to get more stupid the more you start to pick it apart.
Why don't we just dive right into this one here and first talk about the writing. Now earlier, I mentioned Lucien's backstory, and the reasons why he is on a vengeance against the vampires. Now in some fairness, the motivation is not completely unreasonable on his part. It more so has to do with Viktor, one of the vampire elders, who was awakened by Selene way early on in the movie. Now, I'm gonna try not to spoil this film entirely for you guys, but the short version I can tell you is that it just boils down to racism. Well, I say that, although it's not because 'oh he just hates lycans and wants their race destroyed', no no. The reason has to do with more than that. He doesn't want both races to join together in a way which will go against how the vampires operate. Which I know probably still sounds vague, however, as I said, I'm not gonna really spoil the whole reason behind it. I'm not gonna go into another tirade spoiler rant like I did with "Millennium" because at least in this regard, it's a little bit more simplified here.
Leaving aside that, that does lead me into a big problem that I found with this movie, which boils down to the ambiguity of both sides between the vampires and lycans. See, the movie sets this whole war between the two races against each other, and you're not really sure who you're suppose to root for or even care about. That bit I mentioned about Lucien's backstory, even though it does clear up some things about how the war started, before that happens, the movie sets it up as if the lycans are the bad guys. And just in case you're curious, lycans are essentially just werewolves. That's it. There's no special meaning about them other than they're werewolves. Granted, they look a little different than how I would view werewolves, but that's just really more of perspective. Anyway, they're set up as the bad guys. And yet, as you're watching the movie, you start to learn about the vampires, who almost all of them are not really all that likable. Kraven is basically kind of a self-centered asshole. I get what they were trying to do with Selene, though she kinda comes off as being very one notish and doesn't have very much personality. And Michael is just really thrown into the thick of things, even if it may not be his fault. So really, you're with left two sides here and you're not really sure who you're suppose to care about and why. Which honestly, doesn't really leave a very good impression, especially this being a first movie in a series and all.
One more thing I wanted to mention is the pacing. You see, I hinted at it earlier, but the pacing in this movie is just not very good. Well, at least the first hour anyway. First hour of the movie just feels like a slog to get through because the movie just feels like it's taking it's own sweet time trying to build itself up. Which probably wouldn't be much of an issue for me, however, it really didn't do anything to build it's up characters or anything else of the sort. It wasn't until the halfway mark where they try to give out backstory for Selene in which it kinda sorta works, however, most of her backstory is just told through exposition. You don't really see any of it, which is more left up to being very ambiguous. The only you thing you get to see is flashbacks from Michael's perspective of what happened that led up to the war between the lycans and vampires. Very brief ones, mind you, but still, that's the only thing you get to see. That, and the reason why the Lycans are after Michael to begin with. Again, I won't spoil the reason why. You can just watch the movie for yourself if you're really curious.
Now with everything I just talked about regarding the movie's flaws with writing, I will say that the second hour of the film does pick up and it actually does start to get interesting. And again, I am gonna comment on the film's look because it really does look like a darker style kind of world. Although, if I had to nitpick anything, I have to ask if it ever becomes daytime at all in this universe? I'm only asking because it's always shown during the night. Which makes sense, seeing as it's featuring vampires and werewolves and all. But still, it's just something I wanted to ask because at least with fictionalized cities like Gotham City, at least they show that it can become blue skies instead of the usual red sky you see in some universes like the animated series did. But that's just me going *way* off topic. Point is, I'm just nitpicking something, partially for the sake of it. But who knows, maybe in future installments, they actually bothered to include that detail somewhere.
But anyway, the writing here, while ridiculously flawed, is still entertaining as long as you view it as a mindless popcorn flick. And as long as you don't try to pick apart this movie like I did, you might really enjoy this movie even more. But that really depends on your taste in movies, obviously. So with that being said, let's talk about the acting next. And I will say that the acting here is really good. Kate Beckinsale does a rather good job with her performance even though it can still come as being one notish at times. Martin Sheen also turns in a really good showing as Viktor when he eventually shows up near the halfway mark of the film. Everyone else, while most of their roles are minor, still turn in a rather good showing as well. So, I can at least say everyone here turned in a pretty good showing.
Special effects in this movie are mostly really solid, except for one. Now I won't spoil what it is exactly, but it involves a kill, and the slicing of this kill when the head comes off looked rather bad. However, it really is only regulated to that one scene. If you ever get around to watching this movie, you'll have a pretty good idea as to what I'm talking about. Everything else in involving CG, like when you see a Lycan shapeshift into their true forms, and blood effects looks great. Costuming is also pretty good, too, even though with Kate Becinsale, she's only wearing black leather, similar to how Catwoman looked in "Batman Returns", although a little less stylish and more straight to the point. Regardless, her costume is fine.
Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is mostly consisting of bluish lighting, which helps this movie's visual style. I know some people might be turned off by this, however, I still believe it makes this movie stand out a little bit in a positive way. Sound-mixing here is good. And the music, well, there's honestly not much I can say about it. It's mostly just a forgettable score, really.
So with all that being said, guys, am I able to recommend "Underworld"? Um...sure. Only, though, if you go into it as mindless popcorn flick. Like I said earlier, as long as you don't try to pick out the obvious problems this film has, then you'll definitely find some enjoyment out of this movie. However, if the problems become too obvious for you to not overlook, then I can't guarantee that you'll like this movie. Myself, personally speaking, it's an all right movie. It certainly isn't great, but it's still decent for what it is. I'm hoping the sequels will actually improve on what I just discussed in this review and hopefully they'll be able to fix them. In the meantime, I'm gonna go and watch another movie involving vampires. I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Vampire Hunter D". It's been a good while since I last saw it, so I'm gonna go and watch that next.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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