Slick, undemanding fun.

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2009)

A comic-book style monster flick designed to appeal to goths, teens, teen-goths, and middle-aged men (my demographic!) who like hot young women in figure-hugging rubber outfits, Underworld squeezes sexy Kate Beckinsale into a shiny black costume, equips her with some serious firepower (a pair of hand cannons almost as big as she is) and sends her out hunting werewolves. The result is a slick piece of mainstream horror that, despite lacking any really effective scares or a genuine sense of excitement, still offers enough fun to make it worth a watch.
Beckinsale plays Selene, a beautiful vampire warrior embroiled in a centuries-long conflict against a race of werewolves known as 'lycans'. Driven by a desire for revenge against the creatures that she believes slaughtered her family, Selene has dedicated her life to destroying the lycan, but after rescuing a human from an attack by her hairy foes, the sexy bloodsucker discovers that all is not as it appears to be between the two races...
Director Len Wiseman's cast are all ridiculously attractive and impossibly cool, sporting the the latest in Gothic chic; the blue-tinted, rain-drenched cinematography is far more impressive than the rather forgettable plot; and nobody does anything without looking great whilst doing it. However, although Underworld is undoubtedly a case of style over content, it still manages to be pretty entertaining.
The script, by Wiseman and Kevin Grevioux, writes its own rules and includes such inventive gimmicks as ultraviolet and silver-nitrate bullets (for use against vampire and lycan respectively); there are some very impressive CGI werewolf transformations; the wonderful Bill Nighy gives a terrific performance as head vampire Viktor; and lots of noisy shootouts and fights (during which Selene never seems to be in any real danger) mean that things rarely get dull.
Films like Underworld won't change the face of horror cinema, but at least they're enjoyable for the duration.
6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.