take me to the underworld

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2008)

The Matrix (1999) spawned a new genre. A genre when action is taken place all is shown in slo-mo. Also when people are fighting or doing their things the Japanese wire-effect is used. The Matrix stood on his own but 2003 brought The Matrix Revolutions and Reloaded but also a lot of flicks based on those effects. Underworld followed the same tradition and brought something new to the horror genre. By doing that it had his pro's and contra's but I was taken by the throat.
I had seen it in 2003 but nowadays with the Blu Ray relaeses I saw it again and reviewed it again. I loved it because I was hooked on the story and on the suspense build in Underworld. But also on the sublime acting of Victor (Bill Nighy) and Lucian (Michael Sheen). I really loved them and the way Lucian was played was really welldone. Michael moved further to the stupid and ridiculous teenage vampire saga , Twilight, but again I really loved his performance there as Aro.
Selene (Kate Bekinsale) looked gorgeous and indeed reminded you the most towards Neo in The Matrix. She played well too but I wasn't really into her. She was a bit the underdog.
Still, not that all into CGI I never had any problem with the lycans coming alive. Full CGI but still they add the real red stuff in it when they attack the vampires.
The script itself is just as simple as it can get. Vampires are living among humans, some are Death Dealers like Selene. They only have one reason why they are Death Dealers, to destroy the lycans. It's going on for ages until Lucian has interest in a human. It's for Selena to search it out why and she come across a revelation of lies. Once that happens the movie really becomes enjoyable.
Len Wiseman did an excellent job as director. He did Underworld Evoltion (2006) to move further to Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and the remake of Total Recall (2012).
If you are into vampires and werewolves and can dig a twist to the world they are living in than pick this up, excellent.
Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5