Just got back from the 12:45 showing of Underworld. Damn, what a fun movie.
The backstory for the Vampires and Lycans, in the movie, was fairly interesting. I thought it was a fairly good explanation for the two mythos, and how they’re related to each other.
One neat bit, I thought, was the location ambiguity of the setting. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be set in Europe, or the US. But, um… does it ever stop raining, there? Does the sun ever come up?
The wire work was pretty amazing. They really managed to convey a sense of weight- when the characters hit the ground, they really hit the ground, much moreso than The Matrix ever managed.
And you know, they could’ve just had two hours of Kate Beckinsale standing around in that tight black leather bodysuit, and I would’ve wanted more. Damn. I may have to go watch it again…
I saw the movie a few hours ago. The atmosphere was amazing, similar to Blade Runner. I thought the ending left plenty of room for a sequel. I hope the sequel is better than Blade II. I agree the leather fashions were incredible.
I saw this movie last night and I could not believe how unredeemably bad it was. Not even Kate Beckinsale in the leather could begin to make up for it.
I heard the movie was bad, although the trailers looked really cool to me. The word was that the plot consisted of a series of fights and little else. I’d be glad to hear from some Dopers on how the movie worked in terms of plot, characterization, etc. Obviously, the movie really LOOKS great, I’ve not heard a great deal about that.
Saw it last night. Didn’t suck nearly as hard as I’d expected, but I wouldn’t say it was good by any stretch of the imagination. It sure looked pretty, though. And some of tha acting (Kraven, in particular) was refreshingly hammy. The werewolves looked okay for the most part, but still, no one has ever come close to American Werewolf in London. Plotwise, it holds together better than most monster movies of this calibur, but there are still a few SUV-sized plot holes.
On my pitance of a student budget I think I will wait this one out. Thought the effects looked nice, but I could tell just watching the preview that it was eye candy and not much else. A supernatural Matrix if you will. The leather and wire type fighting helped that impression.
It was “Okay,” but they could have done a lot more with it. It could have been “great.” (I’d have started by letting the vampire Commandos by walking on the ceilinging, and whatnot)
Selene (Kate Beckinsale) was a pretty cool character, and an impeccible dresser, to boot. And, come to think of it, she had nice boots, too. (As in footwear, wiseass) Although, I did notice that, for a battle-hardened “deathdealer,” she tends to flinch and blink a lot when firing pistols at the camera…and her aim seemed to be off, as well. :dubious:
“Michael,” on the other hand, didn’t seem to do a hell of a lot besides brood, and stand around looking pretty. Though I guess it’s cinematic payback for the decades of “ove interests” bimbos who didn’t do much more than faint in terror, and get dragged around by the wrist.
But they DID violate one of the central principles of a successful action movie…in the finale, the building has be either collapsing, blowing up, or burning down. Preferably a combination of the three.
Did anyone else catch the “we’ll try and squeeze in a visual effect in post production, if we can afford it” shot, when the vampiric whatshername was “modeling” the skimpy dress in front of the mirror? You just know they wanted to cut in a shot of clothes hovering in midair, in the mirror’s reflection.
And the “Lycans”…too much slashing, not nearly enough skull-crushing.
Does anyone know who played Amelia? I checked imdb and she doesn’t appear to be listed in the cast. She really looked like Monica Belucci, but I couldn’t tell for sure.
I’m with Ranchoth, it had the potential to be a good film but ended up being very a average blade rip-off. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out who was a Lichen and who was a vampire as they all wear black and stroll about looking moody, but Kate Beckinsale in a pvc suit made it entertaining to watch.
I would’ve loved to have seen a few more scenes of the death-dealers kicking ass, and I hoped Victor’s fighting style would be better than it was, maybe like those quick Vampires in Blade 2. Another nice touch would’ve been if the big fight scene at the end was in a ‘The One’ style, where they are fighting in a quicker frame rate than teh scenery around them.
I’m a bit surprised that I only agree with White Lightning. I thought this movie was just terrible. I didn’t expect much from it, I figured it’d be a lame Matrix clone. But it sunk much lower than I could’ve anticipated. Every couple of minutes, something would happen to get the entire audience laughing. They did get momentum going a few times, but always blew it. Whenever Kraven was in a scene, for example. The actor just alternated between yelling and whining, always with a snarl on his face.
How was this billed as a Romeo and Juliet story? There was one kiss - out of nowhere - between the leads, and it was brief.
The visuals were fine, and the movie looked good. There was no color, but I get what they were going for, and it’d be really low on a list of complaints. I’ve had enough wirefights for this lifetime, but that’s not Underworld*'s fault.
Viktor yelling “I love you!” was hilarious. As was his death, which was straight out of Looney Tunes.
Seemed to me they spent too much time on exposition and too little on developing characters anyone could care about. I thought Beckinsale and Michael Sheen (Lucian) did a good job with what they had, the remaining characters were rather flat and forgettable. It does get a few points for style, worth a rental IMO.
The Matrix-style action sequence has run the cycle of innovative/imitated/satired to the point where it is verging on self-parody. Give the Whizzshizzski brothers one more pass at it to complete their trilogy, then retire the thing already.
I’m with White Lightening and Marley23 on this one.
I was so looking forward to this flick, but was sorely disappointed. It did not hold my attention so much that I found myself drowsing in the theatre.
The visuals were pretty, and the story was interesting, but the plot was slow, the action was slow and pointless. The characters were dull and lifeless.
Longest, most expensive Bacardi comercial evah. Notice how, instead of walking, or standing, or running, they had all of the vampire extras essentialy vouge across the screen? Brilliant. Tommorow, join me in burning all of my paper money in order to avoid another unfortunate movie choice.
By the way, did anyone notice the sound being a little bit off in some parts? I’m wondering if it was just the theater I was in, or the movie itself.
Which makes me wonder…Are the vampires called vamps? I’m assuming the change is the make it easier to say. If they say vampires(3 sylables), why not say werewolves(2), or lycanthropes(3)?
Or does lycans just sound “kewl” for some reason that I’m not aware of?
I heard “Lichens” early in the movie, then everyone started saying “Lycans”, or so I thought. Maybe it was being interpreted in my head after I found out who they were referring to.
I saw this without knowing any background on it, but I’m assuming it is based on an already existing storyline like Blade was. Am I right? Regardless, I thought the plot was somewhat deeper than the Blade or Anne Rice vampire movies and at least it made coherent sense.
The vampires seem pretty weak compared to your classic ones with the exception of the One Awakened a Century Too Early. Which leads me to my first ignorant question: does one of these Old Ones usually reign at any given time while the other two “sleep”? If so, which one was supposed to be in charge when Kraven was supposedly messing everything up? Second question: Lucian mentions that vampires and lycanthropes have a common ancestor. Any idea what/who that would be? Would’ve been interesting to see a flashback of that beginning/split.
Yeah, they go over this. The ancestor is a warlord who developed an immunity to some disease that was killing everyone else. His cells were able to merge with the cells of the virus. He had "at least two"children (a second after this is stated, we find out he actually had three.) One was bitten by a bat, the second was bitten by a wolf, the third was bitten by nothing at all. The bat and wolf bites merged with the virus and caused the siblings to become the first vampire and, er, lycan. The remaining sibling went on to have a perfectly normal life, and was the ancestor of Michael.
I got that “lycan” was short for “lycanthrope,” but it still sounded silly. At one point, I recall the movie taking a pause to actually explain the meaning, just in case everybody had missed it. It went something like this-
“He’s a lycan…”
Me: A moss?"
“…A werewolf.”
That’s what you get when a good third of your movie is just long pauses.
