Strong production values short-circuited by a script that gives the viewer no one to care about

Rating: 5/10 (29 May 2005)

Right out of the gate, I will freely admit that Kate Beckinsale looks absolutely fabulous in this movie, and she almost carries the whole thing by herself. Plus, the art direction and sound design and cinematography are all top notch.
However, the problem is the script and the story that the movie tries to tell. The script lacks any warmth or empathy and turns the movie into a cold, sterile exercise in attitude and pyrotechnics.
The plot revolves around an ongoing secret race war between vampires and werewolves. But the whole movie seems set in a world where human beings barely exist. After the initial shootout in the train station, you never actually see another 'normal' human being aside from Speedman's character and his doctor friend. And Speedman isn't really 'normal', either - he's the genetic link between vamps and wolves. This gives the movie an airless, detached feel, with nothing to ground it in believability or reality. This was certainly a deliberate choice, but it has the unintended consequence of making the war irrelevant to my human perspective and concerns. Look at the Matrix films for a contrast - sure, there are superhuman fantasy forces on display in 'The Matrix', but you never lose contact or identification with the very human heroes contending with those forces.
Similarly, except for the fact that the beautiful and sexy heroine is a vampire, the viewer is given no real reason to care which side should ultimately win the war. The werewolves are brutal, savage, and merciless; the vampires are decadent, self-involved, and fey, with their ranks divided by internal power struggles and treachery. Neither side is at all appealing except for the juvenile desire to identify with the biggest bad-*ss in the schoolyard.
The so-called 'Romeo and Juliet' elements to the film which the promoters try to emphasize, and which supposedly drives the moral center of the film is barely there -it's a 'Bad Hemingway' version of a romance. As far as I can see, we are supposed to realize that the vampire "Death Dealer" loves the human male because she doesn't kill him. There is practically no interaction between the two 'romantic leads' until the very end of the movie. They are a couple because the movie ASSERTS that they are a couple destined to be together, but we never see any compelling reason (or evidence) why this should be the case.
And it really grates that the vampires get shredded so easily by the werewolves. I thought the vamps were supposed to be winning this war? What's the point of BEING a vampire if all you can do is survive long drops off a fourth story roof?
Again, the movie looks great; if the story driving it had been even half as good, 'Underworld' might have been the big movie of summer 2003.