Underworld

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. (20/11/2003)

When you first read the film's premise, you might hesitate at the idea of a battle between vampires and werewolves and think to yourself, "No way, I'm not watching that at all." Don't make the same mistake I did for a few years. Len Wiseman is a solid craftsman who knows what he's doing, and we've already seen proof of that (Die Hard 4 was an action hit). There was no problem with his direction. The story has a few flaws, but the presentation of the mythology itself was top-notch. The script is weaker, and sometimes you'll find illogical character behavior, but it seems to me that lately, the script isn't always the top priority. You just can't overthink everything happening on screen, but if you enjoy the mysterious execution with a likable main heroine, you'll end up liking the film. For a fairly low budget, the special effects were great, which really surprised me (it's nice to see that today, you can make a blockbuster for a reasonable price). The use of colors benefited the film, and I wouldn't have liked full colors, which would have somewhat killed the atmosphere. The action is the best aspect, and the vampire vs. lycan fights have something going for them. We'll see what the sequel brings, and then another sequel, and after that another... It's a long series, so I'm slightly worried that the quality won't hold up throughout. I give it 71%. (14/08/2017)

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. (29/11/2003)

How to put it best... I really like the topic of vampirism and I don't mind the pop culture mutation of “Vampire: The Masquerade". I am more bothered when there is too much of the same thing in Hollywood, which is exactly the case of Underworld. I quite liked the atmosphere of some of the shots, and I also liked the vampire guru Viktor and his counterpart, the Lycan "Pepa Vojtek" Lucius. Otherwise, the characters lack motivation and, what’s worse, they are played tragically (particularly Barbi Kate is dismal). The biggest loser, however, is director Len Wiseman... the film might be stupid but also attractive, but in its current form it is only stupid. I would forgive the completely obvious and non-artificial copying of the visual style of the Wachowski brothers, but it is very difficult to forgive the totally chaotic and choreographically-weak action scenes, which culminate at the end with a confusing swarm of uncles in black coats... Trying to figure out who is who in the cannonade of cuts is useless, and this characterizes the entire film. Underworld lacks strong conflict and drama bearers, a clearly defined storyline, and mastered choreography. In some places the film does not lack decent action momentum, but the mentioned chaos and dialogues conducted in a ridiculously ceremonial spirit undermine the film and make it weaker. (04/01/2006)

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. (02/06/2012)