The Town Herald

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Underworld the Movie

by [Kaeirdwyn]


Underworld The Movie
By [Kaeirdwyn] Kristie Baker


This is an unique film directed by Len Wiseman. It is rated R for strong violence and gore. It is an action horror, about the secret societies of vampires and werewolves, called lycans in this movie, and it stars Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, and Bill Nighy. Though this movie was a box office hit, it was poorly received by many critics. Roger Ebert said, "This is a movie so paltry in its characters and shallow in its story, that the war seems to exist primarily to provide graphic visuals." On the other hand, the New York Daily News said it was, "Stylish and cruel, and mightily entertaining for certain covens out there."
As far as things that perhaps should have been done better, the actors only had two weeks to prepare as far as wirework and props. Those guns looked quite good in Kate's hands and seemed to fit snuggly there, like she had been using them for a long time.
The story begins with Selene, a death dealer, one who deals death to the lycans, whom the vampires have been at war with for centuries. The lycan ruler Lucian has been killed and it seems that they lycans are dying out. On a routine mission with her partner, Selene comes across what seems to be a lycan obsession with a certain human. In a shoot out with the lycans, Selene's partner is killed, she realized the human is very important to the lycans, and as she follows after them, to their lair she hears unimaginable sounds. The sounds of a thriving community of lycans.
Logic telling her this cannot be, she tracks down Michael Corvin, the human the lycans are interested in. She of course, finds him right as the lycans arrive to get him as well. She rescues him, but not before he is bitten by a lycan wearing a strange amulet. The lycan takes some of the blood out of his mouth and puts it into a vial. She has no idea he has been bitten and they are chased by the lycan, who can run faster than their car, and has a nice blade hidden up his sleeve, which he uses to slice down through the roof of the car, hitting Selene in the shoulder. She looses some blood, blacks out and the car takes a tumble into the water. Michael saves them both and drags her out, saving her life. When she wakes, she takes him to the vampire mansion to sort things out, find some answers and figure out why the logistics aren't adding up. It seems betrayal by one of the coven has all of them believing lies. Lucian, the leader of the lycans is alive and well, and in fact is the one who attacked Michael.
Selene finds out from a lycan she interrogates later that the vampires and lycans are from the same family. The father, having survived a plague in the middle ages, has genetically altered blood. His three sons are prominant as far as one is bitten by bat, one by wolf and the other stays human and carries on the line, all the way down to Michael. The lycans believe that if they have Michaels' blood, they can create a hybrid of the two races and finally win the war, conquering the vampires at last.
The problem facing Selene is that as a death dealer, she is bound to kill Michael now that he has been bitten by a lycan. She does not kill him, as her attraction to him increases, and she does her best to try to help him as he slowly turns into a lycan, involving him in a war he knows nothing about and wants nothing to do with.
A point of interest is that the film was the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the makers of the roleplaying games of Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, made by White Wolf, Inc. They claimed the setting was too close to the World of Darkness setting. Sony Pictures and Screen Gems settled out of court with them for an undisclosed amount.
All in all, for a vampire and werewolf movie, it had enough action and points of interest that this writer thought it was dark and inviting and sat on the edge of the seat the entire first viewing of the movie. The only complaint is that the characters of Selene and Michael should have been more in depth and personalized. It would have made the story that much better. Still, all in all Underworld received 3 and a half stars from this writer, and for any horror flick, that's pretty darn good. Have a great time watching it, if it isn't a favorite already.




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