This whole City-of-Dreadful-Night thing is becoming a cliché

Rating: 3/10 (4 December 2006)

"Underworld" (and I am not making this up) is about a war between werewolves and vampires. Apparently, the two species have been at war for many centuries, but the vampires have been getting the better of it ever since about five hundred years ago they won a great victory and killed the werewolf leader Lucian. The result is that nowadays vampires live in elegant Gothic mansions whereas the werewolves (or Lycans- presumably a contraction of "lycanthropes"- as they are referred to) have to lead an underground existence in the sewers.
That, at least, is the basic premise of the film. I had always thought that vampires killed their enemies by sucking their blood and that they could in turn only be killed by a stake though the heart, but in this film they (and their Lycan enemies) have obviously acquired the benefits of modern technology because both sides go into battle with all guns blazing. Apparently they have to use some rather specialised ammunition, but the net result is that the film's action sequences look more like something out of "Gunfight at the OK Corral" than "Dracula". Although the Lycans retain the power to transform themselves into wolf-like monsters, the vampires have also ditched many of their other traditional attributes. They do not, for example, sleep in coffins during daylight hours (not that they need to, because it always seems to be night-time during this film), or waste much time trying to avoid crucifixes and garlic. They don't even seem to do much bloodsucking.
The plot is fairly (make that extremely) confusing. Indeed, at times it seems that the plot is only an excuse upon which to hang some highly extended battle sequences. At its heart, however, seems to be a sort of Romeo and Juliet tale about Selene, a beautiful vampire girl, and her love for Michael, a werewolf boy. Except that Michael isn't really a werewolf, but a human unwillingly converted to lycanthropy after being bitten. Except that he isn't really a normal human, but someone who (if he traces his family tree back enough) has for distant cousins the Lycans on one side and the vampires on the other. Which makes his blood very useful as part of some nefarious scheme the Lycans have cooked up. Or something like that.
Mixed in with this is a plot line seemingly borrowed from a Cold War spy thriller. Kraven, one of the vampire leaders, is secretly a double agent, in league with Lucian (who, it seems, faked his own death) in order to help him carry out the aforesaid nefarious scheme, so it falls to Selene, as a sort of vampirical James Bond, to try and thwart him. Or something like that.
The film is set in an unnamed city (actually shot in Budapest) and has the sort of moody, Gothic look- all darkness and rainswept, deserted city streets- which a generation ago would have been acclaimed as highly original. Ever since Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" in 1982, however, this whole City-of-Dreadful-Night look has become a cliché. Think, for example, of the various "Batman" films. (Interestingly enough, when Scott's brother Tony made an urban vampire story, "The Hunger", the year after "Blade Runner", he deliberately avoided this look in favour of something light and airy). In "Underworld" Len Wiseman takes the dark, moody look to extremes- the colour scheme is so dominated by blacks, greys and dark blues that it might as well have been made in monochrome.
The best thing that this film has going for it is the looks of Kate Beckinsale in her tight leather catsuit. Unfortunately, the film does not really show off Miss Beckinsale's acting talents in the same way as it shows off her figure. She made a great start to her film career as a delightful and unaffected Hero in Kenneth Branagh's wonderful version of "Much Ado about Nothing", but in recent years she has made some rather odd career choices (that stuffed turkey "Pearl Harbour" being another). None of the other actors make their characters come to life; indeed, this is the sort of film where characterisation comes well down the list of the filmmakers' priorities (noisy and violent action being at the top). I note that there are a number of threads on the IMDb message board asking whether viewers side with the vampires or the Lycans. Who cares? As Henry Kissinger is alleged to have said of the Iran-Iraq war: it's a pity they can't both lose. 3/10