Nice, underrated movie

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2004)

I am surprised to find that at the time I cast my rating, this movie only got a 6.3/10. I think it is actually much more entertaining than that. First of all, this flick has what seem to be novel ideas in it, in particular the introduction of a kind of "kinship" between humans, vampires and werewolves (referred to as Lycans in the movie). I don't intend to give away spoilers, but let me just say that there is a really surprising twist in the second half of the movie. When you go through the first half, you think that the plot has been given away too early. But to my delight, this was not the case, due to the surprise twist I mentioned earlier. The story can be viewed as a metaphor for racial conflicts and prejudices that exist among humans and it pictures how senseless hatred is borne from generation to generation through cover-ups, deceit and misinformation, and how heavy sacrifices have to be made to bring end to conflict and reach some peace agreement or truce. The action sequences in the movie were also quite decent, although not quite up to the standards of movies in The Matrix trilogy. Kate Beckinsale is absolutely perfect for the role of the female vampire Selene. I must say she looks stunning in her movie hairdo and she is totally hot in the tight black vampiress latex attire. Bill Nighy (who recently played Billy Mack in the feel good X-mas movie "Love Actually") has also been aptly cast as the powerful vampire overlord Viktor. He plays convincingly as the hate-mongering bigot of a leader who is willing to do anything to perpetuate the enmity and hatred of the vampires towards the Lycans. The only weakness I found in this movie is the rather anti-climactic ending. But, highly recommended nonetheless.
I give it 8/10.