Stylish and Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2004)

Being a fan of White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade I was looking forward to watching this movie. Although there were many elements from the game in the movie (I think White Wolf is going to court for this) it is not based on the game. And in my opinion that would make it a much better movie. Still, it was an entertaining movie that I enjoyed both times I watched it.
The main characteristic of the film is STYLE. Everything was stylish, sometimes even at the expense of other aspects of the film, like the action or the story. The atmosphere was very good, a gothic, underground feeling was apparent through the whole film. The action was good and well choreographed. The music was ok, nothing special. And the story was interesting but I feel it was not used to it's full potential. A little more character development and more attention to the details would have made this a far better film.
******SPOILERS****** There were two major mistakes I noticed. 1)When Selene tells Kraven that the Lycans were after a human, he says that Lucian would never be interested in a human. But Lucian is supposed to be dead (only Kraven knows he is not). Oops! I guess he gave that away. 2)When the captured werewolf tells Selene and Viktor about Lucian's plans he mentions that they need the blood of a descendant of Corvinus that is untainted (meaning that he must not be a vampire or werewolf) for the merging of the two species to work. Yet Michael is bitten early on by Lucian thus becoming a werewolf (and becoming tainted). I guess they forgot about it. *******END OF SPOILERS******
To sum it up, this movie has some problems but it still manages to be entertaining. Let's hope they get it better on the sequel. Recommended for everyone at least once, as long as you don't have high expectations. I give it 7 out of 10.