Pathetic Pseudo-Mythology

Rating: 1/10 (25 April 2005)

Another simplistic example of modern film dumbing down the supernatural into a special-effects-laden emptiness of worth.
This is a supernatural version of your typical status-quo rivalry.
All vampires are prissy spoiled brats; all werewolves are poor homeless sewer-dwellers.
FORGET WHATEVER ARCANE METAPHORS EITHER OF THESE SUPERNATURAL CREATURES ACTUALLY SYMBOLIZED; just boil it down to your most basic class-struggle metaphor. Oh, and pretend that there's no magic in the supernatural. They're as vacuous as you. They have their convenient gadgets to one-up the others' clique. How magical.
Far from the mystical, mysterious cloak of legend, this movie reduces vampires and werewolves to the easy frivolity of rich versus poor.
The "mythology" of either is simplified for film purpose. Snobby vampires who apparently shop at Hot Topic and drink the equivalent of bottled water - they live in a security-laden modern palace and get blood from (how lame) hospital blood banks.
The wolves - well, you can't like them because they're not fashionable- (and the movie really doesn't care to develop them) - they have no appeal either (assuming we're supposed to like the spoiled-brat vampires, or the personality-free "heroine").
Wow, that Kate Beckinsale sure can jump off buildings! Over and over again. And then some more.
You really get a sense that someone liked "the Matrix" a bit too much, copied the style, pitched it, but no one (surprise) wanted to produce it. So, LAST MINUTE, they decided, "Okay, how about if the bad guys are werewolves! and the good guys are vampires!...please!!!"
And someone, as dumb as you, actually bought it.