*** Official UNDERWORLD Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Zen Butler]

Had a blast also.
Eujin in one paragraph you say:

I think the relationship between Michael and Selene isn't explicitly romantic in nature. We have that one quick kiss, but that was to distract him when she was chaining him up. Also, much of the "tension" between them is actually created by other characters believing there to be a romance between the two.

If anything their relationship (I'd say connection) was quite reserved and underplayed to the film's benefit. As oppossed to to Anakin and Padme's, which was overwrought, lumbering and bordering the cheesy. I agree with your second assessment much more than your first

 

[Alex Spindler]

I had seen this one opening night, but I remain pretty mixed about it.

The good was the concept, the backstory, and the effects. I liked a great deal the concepts being shown on the film, such as a power structure among vampires and an old feud between them and the werewolves. Their werewolf effects were also quite good, although not hairy, they had a strength to them that was quite good.

Story-wise, the movie wasn't too bad, with some predictability and some might be turned off by the amount of exposition that exists in the film to support it.

The bad was that for all its attempts at an interesting 'wolves and vampires with guns', the movie fails quite solidly to provide anything that I found exciting. I don't expect that every movie present a brand new concept or some trick visual effect, but the idea of combat in this movie is for Kate to stand motionless in narrow hallways and fire at people who don't bother to dodge. This is repeated quite a few times, with the notable exception of the ending, which presented the first totally compelling fight scene. That one fight presented sequences where both species used their individual talents to great effect. Prior to that are scenes with flying metal discs that ... do nothing. And wall crawling lycans ... which do nothing. And silver whip toting vampires that ... do nothing. Worst of all, they introduce bullets that essentially make them all just as fragile as humans.

The other big flaw I found was some of the casting. Kate looks attractive, and manages somehow to knit her brow the entire movie. Scott Speedman was acceptable, but there was just about no attempt to create any kind of an attraction between them. This really devalues all of the constant talk about her breaking covenants and such, because she doesn't seem like she's really in love with him. And the worst casting of all was Shane Brolly as Kraven. Bad delivery, no charisma, no presence.

If they had managed to make the battles more vampiry and werewolvey, I might have warmed up to it a bit more. Perhaps they will do this in their sequel, which they certainly hope to do based on the closing voice over of this movie, but I really hope they don't repeat what they did in this one.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

One of the problems I had with this was the unvampirish nature of the vampires. Beyond jumping from high places they don't really do anything that I associate with vampires. This did have a payoff, of sorts, at the end-When Viktor took down that werewolf basically barehanded, I said to myself, now this is a vampire. And then he died.
By the way, was it just my theater or did this happen everywhere:Viktor's death effect pull everyone out of the film - at my showing, everyone starting laughing. It might have been a cool idea for an effect but it just didn't work for that moment in the film.

 

[Vlad D]

Also happened at my showing. That scene reminded me of the final scene in Equilibrium.

 

[todd stone]

not a bad movie overall, but it did drag at times. I did not like Kraven. I thought Michael Wincott *bad guy from the crow 1* should have played Kraven.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000699/

 

[Steve_Tk]

the bass was up so loud, everytime a door opened or there was some sort of thumping I had to cover my ears. It was very distracting.

I hate when the theater gives a bad showing. No bass problems for me, but when the movie started the volume was so loud overall that I couldn't help but wince in the action scenes.

 

[Alex Spindler]

That would have been better. But heck, I think even Paul Reubens would have been better than the guy they did have.

 

[Martin Fontaine]

Where I saw it, the rears were not working!

But it's good enough to see it again, especially to hear it in proper 5.1... And the DVD, unless it's P&S-Only, I will buy!

 

[david stark]

I saw this last night and enjoyed it. It was a pretty good film with a few minor problems. As mentioned above I don't think bringing out the UV and silver nitrate bullets did the film any favours, if both species were more or less immune to bullets this would allow for more hand to hand (or hand held weapons) fighting.

The end fight scene was superb and we could have done with more of that earlier in the film. Again as mentioned above the death of Viktor wasn't done that well. Not only does it go back to Equilibrium, but also to resident evil and they stole it off The Cube.

Enough with the gripes, I thought the story was well told and even though it wasn't hard to spot the twist coming it did have a story and did explain the motivations of the charaters involved, although Kraven seemed far too thin and wimpy. If he was supposed to have killed Lucien and be believed surely he must have been a decent warrior.

 

[Andy Sheets]

The end fight scene was superb and we could have done with more of that earlier in the film. Again as mentioned above the death of Viktor wasn't done that well. Not only does it go back to Equilibrium, but also to resident evil and they stole it off The Cube.

I didn't mind it that much since to me that kind of thing goes back to Japanese anime. It's relatively new for live action but for those cartoons it's quite common for something to get sliced and then have a delay before the pieces slide apart. Didn't Voltron do it in almost every episode?

Plus, even if the humor was unintentional, I think it helps the movie to give just one little bit of fun since the rest of it had such a heavy tone. It felt good to laugh at that point.

 

[Brian Kissinger]

I'm not going to bother spoilerizing everything. This is the discussion thread. But beware, SPOILERS AHEAD.

I've been thinking about this movie a bit over the weekend, and have come to enjoy it even more than when I first saw it. Some things that have crossed my mind in response to previous comments:

I don't like the way Viktor died

You got me there too. I think the traditional "be-heading" would have been much more effective. This felt more like a special effect for special effect's sake.

 

[Ken Chan]

Volton There was a funny line a little bit earlier, when Selene mentions that they take the silver bullets out so they can interrogate the Lycans and after they're done, the "put them back in".
No reaction whatsoever from the crowd I was in, but they did respond to the final cut.

Two "craftsmanship" nits: When Kraven was lecturing Selene as she sat in front of the computer, his dialog sounded very hollow, like it was recorded on-set, but they forgot to loop it. Second, in Selene's leap right after the cut, her descent into the water looked fine -- and that's the part they show in the trailer -- but the ascent of the arc looked totally fake.

The level of the relationship between Michael and Selene seemed appropriate. It's all the talk/buzz/marketing surrounding the movie, how it was supposed to be Romeo & Juliet, that created the wrong impression.

They never explained why, after Selene gets cut and she says she'll be fine, she suddenly passes out. I though that maybe the blade was poisoned in some way, but it didn't do anything bad to Kraven later.

//Ken

 

[EricW]

i wasn't dissapointed with this movie, but only because everybody (aside from this thread) has panned it. i didn't like Blade II very much either, but on DVD i liked it a little more each time.

another "trailer is much better than the movie" movie. did anybody else find the vampire-with-the-whips fight to be funny? everytime the vamp whipped the werewolf, the wolf just flinched like he got slapped in the face by a girl. even if the whip didn't get caught on the rock, he'd have been toast. so why arm yourself with whips if they're useless? also i didn't expect guns to be used so much.

all in all, a very unoriginal and cliched movie, in terms of story and storytelling. i liked the backstory, but not the way it was told. i barely got the history, and i'm sure the average movie goer probably missed it, the whole reason of why the Speedman character was needed.

 

[Dennis]

The guy who played Kraven was the worst actor I've seen on the big screen in a while- reminded me of a bad afterschool special.

I was wondering who else noticed.

 

[Andy Anderson]

Since this is a discussion thread, I'm not going to block out any of my text with spoilers, so beware...

First off--overall, I enjoyed the movie, but I agree with the general sentiment that it could have been better. I also agree that the actor that played Kraven sucked ass.

Now, a bothersome tidbit of nitpickery--Lucien said that the Lycans were the "daylight guardians" of the vampires. How is this possible, when they retain human form unless there is a full moon out? Now, I know that it was explained that they can change at will, but when Selene explained this, I was under the impression that this was a more recent development/evolution (i.e.--sometime in the last few hundred years). The way she had explained it was in the "The war itself had become more perilous...the weapons had evolved..." etc. monologue. I was under the impression that since the war began, the enemy had grown more dangerous--they've got better weapons now (guns), and now, the Lycans can change at will. If that's true, it would not have been the case 1000+ years ago before Viktor wronged Lucien.

So--how does a werewolf be a daylight guardian? "Dude--I may look scrawny now, but try me in about 12 hours--I'll kick your ass..."


Seriously though...

 

[Jon Torres]

So--how does a werewolf be a daylight guardian? "Dude--I may look scrawny now, but try me in about 12 hours--I'll kick your ass..."

Maybe they just watched over the tombs with spears or something. I totally like the idea that the werewolves were servants/guardians of the vampires and rose up against them.

 

[Andy Anderson]

Yeah--don't get me wrong--I dig that idea as well, and thought the rethinking of the vampire/werewolf myth (similar diseases--one bitten by bat, one by wolf) was very cool. As someone stated before (either in this thread or the review thread), the idea of the class struggle was a good one. I agree--it's just the logistics of the "daylight guardian" role that seems to be confusing.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Not really, stretching way back to Fright Night, the unkillable nature of werewolves and their own regeneration makes them great guardians even in the daytime.

 

[Doug Miller]

The guardian in Fright Night wasn't a werewolf, he was the living dead -- more like a zombie. But I agree, you could kill a werewolf in his man form during the day, and he'd still regenerate.

Doug

 

[John Doran]

if you'll recall, the werewolves were portrayed as being inhumanly strong and fast even when in human form - for example, Lucien ran after and caught-up with Selene's car as she sped away, and Michael jumped out of the window and landed unhurt from a multiple-story fall.

i think they'd be just the kind of guardian a vampire would want.