Film Review: Underworld (2003)

Gap between what film critics praise and what the audience like has been a fact of life for a long time. One of its most spectacular manifestations can be found in Underworld, 2003 action horror film directed by Len Wiseman. Almost unanimously rejected by all relevant critics, it nevertheless became a huge box office hit and later spawned a successful franchise.

The plot revolves around Michael Corvin (played by Scott Speedman), young medical student who first becomes a witness, and later a subject of conflict between two powerful organisations. Participants aren’t humans – on one side are vampires, whose clan is temporarily led by Kraven (played by Shane Brolly), and on the other sides are werevolves or “Lycans”, whose leader Lucian (played by Michael Sheen) has been killed by Kraven. The conflict nevertheless continues, and one of “Death Dealres”, vampires specifically trained to kill Lycans, is Selene (played by Kate Beckinsale). She discovers that Lycans are actually looking for Michael and decides to protect him. It soon becomes apparent that Lucian is actually alive and that Michael might be descendant of a person that was common ancestor of vampires and Lycans, and that is actually a hybrid that possesses enhanced strength and weaknesses of both species. Not trusting Kraven, she awakens the old vampire leader Viktor (Bill Nighy), her adopted father.

Concept of vampires and werewolves locked in centuries-old secret war isn’t particularly original and Underworld was actually subject of plagiarism lawsuit filed by White Wolf, publisher of World od Darkness tabletop role playing games. However, Kevin Griveoux, one of the developers of the story for the film (who also appears in the role of werewolf Raze), had degree in microbiology and used his expertise to give the concept some sort of para-scientific explanation. This made fictional world of the film look relatively well-rounded and somewhat convincing, despite limited setting and almost entire plot taking place within one city during the night. The audience, however, didn’t pay particular attention to the setting, Romeo and Juliet-like elements of the plot or characters. What attracted them was great sense of style by Len Wiseman, director with notable experience in music videos. Inspired by similarly themed Blade and the “cool” aesthetics of The Matrix, Wiseman has used relatively weak plot as solid basis for series of spectacular action scenes, with rapid editing that make two hours of running time pass quickly. Another important element of the film was use of “cool” guns, “cool” costumes, “cool” soundtrack and cinematography by Tony Piere-Roberts that made otherwise prosaic locations of Budapest look “cool”. But the most iconic element of the film was Kate Beckinsale, who embraced opportunity to play action heroine with great enthusiasm (and who would later marry Wiseman). Her effort was further enhanced by stylistic choices that involved her being dressed in tight black leather outfits, making it more than suitable into exploitation film in which vampires and werewolves fight each other with automatic weapons and martial arts. All that make audience forget or forgive film’s flaws that include stereotypical characters or the somewhat disappointing cliffhanger-like ending. The decision to end film in such way was, however, quite justified from strictly commercial perspective. Underworld, despite not being among the most ambitious projects of its time, had great success at the box office and the story continued in three more sequels and a prequel.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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