Directed by:
Len WisemanScreenplay:
Danny McBrideCinematography:
Tony Pierce-RobertsComposer:
Paul HaslingerCast:
Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy, Sophia Myles, Robbie Gee, Wentworth Miller, Zita Görög, Andreas Patton, Erwin Leder (more)Plots(1)
Len Wiseman's directorial debut sees vampires battle with werewolves. Two underground communities, the sophisticated Death Dealers (vampires), and the feral Lycans (werewolves), have been battling for supremacy and hidden from the mortal world for centuries. That is until one night when one of their battles is witnessed by a young doctor, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman). When a leading member of the Death Dealers, Selene (Kate Beckinsale), discovers a Lycan plot to kill the doctor she decides to follow him. But the more Selene follows him the more attracted to the man she becomes, and is convinced that the Lycan's are planning a major attack. When Corvin is attacked by a Lycan and becomes a werewolf, and a sworn enemy of her race, Selene finds herself in a dilemma. (Entertainment in Video)
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Reviews (11)
This was alright. Kate in the corset and latex is decent at least. The purposefully colorized black-and-blue-and-white film is pleasing to the eye, but that's about all there is to say about it. Dramatically, it’s too straightforward, so the only films it can beat on points in its genre are the infamous Twilight saga films.
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The key to Underworld is your level of tolerance for the screenplay that pretends to be serious but is actually naïve and unintentionally funny in places. Len Wiseman may have fulfilled a childhood dream, but he’s either forgotten about the more mature audience or he still has a pimply face himself. Even so, I can’t give this less than three stars, which is thanks to the spectacular production. The childishness is justified by the fury of the action scenes, the sets and mainly Kate Beckinsale’s sexy costume. If you’re not an admirer of Federico Fellini, the visual and aural aspects of this film will appeal to you more than its content will annoy you.
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A film that is the biggest disappointment of the year for me personally. The fact that the touted story of Romeo and Juliet in the world of vampires and werewolves never happens wouldn't matter so much, but an action horror film with entirely unimaginative and static action and without a single thrilling moment is already a problem. On top of that, the acting is mediocre, the make-up effects are crap, the script, besides being pretty simple, has tons of logical errors and the direction is very subpar. It's a shame, because with its premise it could have been so much more.
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Underworld is definitely not an extremely good film, but it is visually attractive, musically well-done, and sufficiently atmospheric. Kate Beckinsale fits snugly into her tight suit, and the only thing that really bothered me, and paradoxically diminished the film's cool factor, were the sometimes dull and unnecessary digital effects.
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A terribly naive barrage of action that perhaps suffers from the inexperience of Wiseman as a director; he obviously shot the film with great passion, never letting the viewer breathe a sigh of relief with a relentless sequence of shootouts, chases and werewolf transformations. That's certainly a good thing, but with such a bland and silly story, it didn't really come together. I felt like the film was exactly the same from start to finish and ultimately didn't bring anything groundbreaking to make me remember it for a long time. Apart from Kate Beckinsale, the best was probably the demonic Bill Nighy, whom I couldn't recognize at first thanks to the thorough work of the make-up artists.
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