Minor Spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2003)

I was excited about this movie when I first saw the previews, from what I had seen, the action sequences appeared to be quite interesting and I have always been enthralled with vampires and werewolves, especially them battling it out. I usually do not expect much from movies from this genre nowadays, but I would have been a lot more dissapointed by the quality had a I not read some rottentomatoes reviews previously. Did not make me not want to watch the movie, but I took it with a grain of salt so to speak. Now I enjoyed the movie, but I was not exactly 100 percent sober, so that may have helped me through it somewhat, but I am sure I would have enjoyed it at least minorly otherwise. But I went in there to see an action, vampire versus werewolf type thiing and that is what I got.
But the acting, EVERYBODY'S acting was horrible. Kate Beckinsale's fans seem to want to exclude her, or think her looks make up for the lack of talent she displayed in this film. Now I am not saying she is not a good actress, but she does not have the capacity to play a somber, lonely, renegade vampire well, she, just like EVERYBODY else in the movie were doing some serious overacting. Especially Kraven. At first I was just annoyed, but eventually I just had to laugh at how bad of an actor he was, and how he acted the exact same in every scene, there was no flexibility in his "talent". Terrible. Lucien at first was not doing too well either, overacting it up, but he seemed to warm up to the role towards the end, and Viktor, for the same amount of time he was on screen, did a good job as well in my opinion.
The fight scenes had some cool parts, but it also had some really contrived cheesy parts. I cannot even begin to explain how cheesy some of the stuff was, you just had to see it. I was annoyed by how many vampires wanted to take on a werewolf head to head, unarmed. They actually thought they had a chance. In the first fight scene, the vampire sits there hissing and hissing, while the changed werewolf is growling and looking much more sinister. I was expecting the vampire to display some sort of strength, even if the werewolf is physically superior, the vampire should still be able to hold his own for awhile. And this is what any viewer would think, considering the vampires absolutely annoying, I could even call it sissy-like hissing. But with all the hissing, the werewolf merely walks up to him and that was the end for that very silly vampire who did not even put up a fight. And I thought that would be the end of that but my favoritest stupid scene had to be the second vampire that ran out of ammo and finds himself head to head with a werewolf. But wait, this vampire is armed, with...(if you have never seen the movie you will never guess it)...with...with two metallic whips! What the hell was that all about? I did not know there were some lion taming vampires out there, but this one really took his whip wielding very seriously. This scene was by far the cheesiest, hilarious because it was so pointless, and what made it worse was the people who shot the scene, thought it was cool, at least I thought that was evident. And he had like a routine, he was not even trying to hit the werewolf, he was just wielding them in a circular motion...Why? And it was so unexpected when the werewolf walks up to the "cool" vampire and kills him right away.
Everything in this movie had to be spoonfed. In the end when Selene cuts Viktor, the audience was left to believe that it was possible she missed, because Viktor was still standing. Countless movies have done the same, and then the head falls off (I say countless, but I know that is an exaggeration, because right now I cannot even think of one). But that was enough, she is standing there, and so is he, would it not have been enough just to show the slice of head fall off? Like somebody said about the music, the music should fit the scene, not the other way around. The score in this movie was trying to make you feel a certain way, surprised or scared. Selene lifts up her sword and we see the blood on it (she DID cut him!) and the music tells us we are supposed to be surprised. I thought that whole shot was laughable, annoying actually, unnecessary as well. There was just no chemistry between Selene and Michael, none whatsoever, I never sensed like the two had any feelings for each other, so that Romeo and Juliet thing was out the window. Also, Romeo and Juliet's families were trying to keep them apart, while the werewolves wanted this union to occur, in the end when Lucien is coaxing her to bite him. I was also very disappointed that Lucien did not get to see the vampire/werewolf hybrid, and that he went out so easily, and stupidly, turning his back to a traitor after having talked to him like he was an idiot. I was also very disappointed that they ended it to be continued. I did not care about Selene, if she died or not, the movie would have probably been more interesting had she died. The vampires just seemed to me like some coked up humans, never were they frightening.
Although the movie disappointed me a little, I still enjoyed it. Someone was saying they could not understand why people were laughing, they were just not taking it seriously. None of the scenes in there had any comic relief, so they were laughing at the stupidities of the movie. Unless they were supposed to be expecting an Oscar winner, I do not understand how that could baffle anyone, laughing at silly scenes, well, I guess unless you paid nine dollars to see it expecting more, I did not spend that much, and I wouldn't, I recommend this movie on video if you feel like you have to watch it.
4 out of 10