Good but not great, I much prefer the sequel.

Rating: 6/10 (26 November 2006)

Underworld tells the tale of a race of Werewolves known as the Lychans & a race of Vampires know as, well Vampires & the war that has raged between the two for centuries. The Vampire race has vowed to track down every Werewolf & wipe them out, Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is what's know as a deathdealer, one such Vampire who goes around killing Werewolves, it's a living I suppose. However she is suspicious that something big is going down in the Werewolf world, they seem to be after a human named Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) who happens to have special blood because of someone who he is a descendant of, or something like that. The Werewolf leader Lucien (Michael Sheen) wants Michael's blood to genetically create a Vampire Werewolf cross which will be stronger than either a Vampire or Werewolf for reasons I can't be bothered to go into. It's up to the PVC clad Selene to save the day...
This American, German, English & Hungarian co-production was directed by Len Wiseman & I thought it was a decent film although I got the impression that I'd seen it all before & it never quite got me going. I should say at this point that there appears to be two versions of Underworld in distribution, the original theatrical cut & a director's cut & to be honest I don't know which one I saw but it felt way too long either way. The script by Danny McBride is far too drawn out & takes all sorts of ideas & themes from other (much better) films like Blade (1998) & The Matrix (1999) in particular. One big problem I have with Underworld is it's length, at just over 2 hours for the theatrical version & significantly over 2 hours for the director's cut I found myself drifting away & losing interest at various stages as I don't think there's enough going on to sustain one's interest for a couple of hours plus. The basic story is thin to say the least as it mixes the usual traditional Vampire/Werewolf film-lore together with ultra modern up-to-date elements like genetics, hi-tech weaponry & fast cars. It's a fairly good mix to be honest & the film is a good watch but just too long. The plot tries to throw in a couple of twists & turns but I found it all pretty straight forward & a tad predictable. The character's are OK but nothing special & I found the constant comic book type dialogue annoying & repetitive after a while, overall I'd say Underworld is a good film for sure but nothing spectacular.
Director Wiseman does a neat job on Underworld although one felt he was more interested on the visual side of it rather than the storyline, he bleaches almost all the colour out of the picture & there were a few moments where it looked liked he shot it in black and white. There's plenty of The Matrix style fights with people performing impossible leaps, lots of people firing cool looking guns in slow-motion & the like, to be honest none of the action scenes are particularly memorable & I found scenes of people firing guns at each other in slow-motion started to become dull well before the end. The film looks great being set within a cool comic book style industrial, Gothic, dark rain soaked world where everyone dresses in fetishistic rubber, PVC, leather & lace. The violence & gore was disappointing, apart from someone having their head sliced in half & some blood splatter there is actually very little of the red stuff present.
With a modest sounding $22,000,000 budget Underworld looks more expensive than that, it's a stylish & well made film for sure but again it's nothing we haven't seen before. The special effects are pretty good, both physical & CGI. A special mention for Mrs Beckinsale who looks really hot in her PVC outfit, to be honest I reckon she's worth the price of admission on her own as she kicks & shoots her way through the film, hey I'm easily pleased...
Underworld is a good film & one well worth watching if only for Beckinsale in PVC, however I felt it was too long, when you pick the bones from it there's not really much to it & it should have been more violent. Followed by the even better & totally brilliant Underworld: Evolution (2006) which I much prefer to this & the IMDb lists Untitled Underworld Prequel (2009) which I presume hasn't even started shooting yet.