surprisingly good!

Rating: 7/10 (26 February 2008)

being a movie about leather-clad vampires fighting werewolves with guns, underworld will never be regarded as a cinematic masterpiece and brilliant work of art, but thats not what it wants to be in the first place. it wants to entertain, and while doing so, it manages to be a surprisingly good movie too.
no, underworld hardly breaks any new ground. and yes, it has its flaws. the limitations of the budget show throughout the movie, the action scenes are quite unspectacular for an action movie, and Shane Brolly is just terrible. but the rest of the cast does pretty well. especially Kate Beckinsale plays the lead character to perfection and she has great chemistry with romantic interest Scott Speedman and father figure Bill Nighy. the Gothic set and costume designs are beautiful. the most surprising thing, however, is how well constructed the story is. this kind of action/fantasy/sci-fi movies often have terrible plots, but underworld is built on a story that actually makes sense, comes with a decent twist, and even resonates emotionally. while its not as good as matrix, its much better than van hellsing, catwoman, aeon flux, ultraviolet, or about any other movie of this kind.