Underworld

Reviewed by Rich Drees

     All movies are a Mulligan stew of sorts, combining indgrediants from many sources in the hopes of creating an appetizing cinematic meal. Unfortunately, sometimes the results are not so palatable.

     A millennium long secret war between vampires and the lycan, werewolves to us mere mortals, has begun to wind down. The lycan have been “hunted to the brink of extinction” and vampire warrior Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is beginning to wonder what her role in vampire society will be once the war is won.

     While hunting some lycan in their human form Selene discovers that her enemies are hunting Michael (Scott Speedman), an intern at a local hospital. Since Lycan don’t target specific people in their hunt, Selene feels that the lycan are planning something but can’t seem to convince Lucian (Michael Sheen), the leader of her clan.

     Defying Lucian’s orders, Selene tracks down Michael herself, saving him from a lycan attack. Unfortunately, during the ensuing melee Michael is bit and will turn into a lycan during the next full moon. Now the two are on the run from both vampires and lycans trying to uncover a mystery that will affect both species of night creatures.

     Shortly before this film opened White Wolf Publishing filed suit against distributors Screen Gems and Sony Pictures, claiming that the film used concepts that they had developed for their role-playing game Vampire. It’s a wonder than that outside of a courthouse somewhere there isn’t a long line of litigants ranging from William Shakespeare to the makers of the Matrix films ready to follow suit. Not only does this film lift ideas from a multitude of sources, it doesn’t use any of them in an interesting fashion. It’s ironic that Frankenstein’s monster doesn’t make an appearance as it, much like the movie itself, is just an amalgamation of many differing parts.

     Much like the film’s script, the rest of the film is strictly by the numbers and not very inspired. The hairless werewolf design of the lycans is reminiscent of An American Werewolf in London. Meanwhile the vampires dress as if Hot Topics, the trendy alternative clothing chain store you can find in most malls across America, had just held a clearance sale of all their leather coats, corsets and crushed velvet shirts.

     Visually, Underworld is a dark and dreary affair. Mostly monochromatic what little color that is included in the production design is muted and washed out. The film’s opening action sequence, a shoot out on a subway platform between Selene and some lycans, is a muddled confusing mess. One would have expected a better looking film from first time director Les Wiseman as he had previously served in the art department for the films Stargate (1994) and Independence Day (1996).

     The film has one interesting conceit, that both vampirism and lynchanthropy are conditions that have a basis in science not magic. Unfortunately, this isn’t really explored in any kind of depth or used to provide even a pseudo-scientific explanation for why the full moon is a catalyst for the werewolf change or why vampires burst into flames in sunlight.