Eye candy

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2004)

First of all I am a vampire slash horror movie fan. I am and I'm proud to admit it. And I loved this movie, even though it's not horror. Horror movies are a dying breed. They are being replaced by gore/gross movies, that are not scary, they just make you sick. They are also being replaced by fantasy movies like this one. You can hardly be scared by this movie, but you can be fascinated. It is a nice mix of fantasy, action and special effects, so very popular these days. Usually I'm not a big special effects fan, in my opinion they mostly spoil movies, making them one big special effect with no room for a good plot that can unwind nicely (this is the case with Van Helsing, another movie starring Kate Beckinsale). In Underworld they fit nicely, the movie would probably work with less, but I have no great complaints about that and the plot works.
Kate Beckinsale gives a great performance (she was probably really sick or something when they were shooting Van Helsing) It is a movie worth seeing in a movie theater. There is no point in writing about the plot, so in short it's vampires fighting werewolves. It's nicely done (possible SPOILER) and there is no absolute bad guy (end Spoiler). You know how in movies they can come pretty close to what a vampire looks like in your head, but they can never come close to what a werewolf should look like? Well here they almost make it. Almost for me, maybe they look exactly like you picture them in your mind's eye.
I was fascinated by the movie even though at first they called it a Blade rip-off. In my opinion it's better than Blade (I'm very sorry if you're a Blade fan) and I kind of like Blade. The only thing that was similar was the way the story is "told". No vampires lurking in dark corners, preying on people, but vampires fighting one thing or another, no human vampire hunters with wooden sticks...you get the point. Vampires (and werewolves) in modern world using modern technology to aid them in their fight.