In a word...wow...

Rating: 9/10 (20 September 2003)

Forget the Matrix Reloaded...if you want a dark, leather trenchcoat clad movie, dripping with coolness from bloody fangs, then Underworld is your movie. Far too many movies I've seen over the years have promising trailers, but fail to deliver. This is why I was hoping that this movie would deliver, and I was pleased to find out that it most certainly did.
Great performances all around and spectacular special effects (save for a few sub par CGI moments) really makes the story flow nicely. Speaking of which, yes, this movie actually has a story! As sad as that may sound about most Hollywood movies of recent times, this movie has a great, engaging story that is coherent as it is interesting. Quite a change from the confusing plotlines of Matrix Reloaded and other films that have come out this year. The plot is excellent, and is explained well throughout. Any times where you may be scratching your head are cleared up usually a scene later, which I cannot say about other movies I have seen recently in the theater that opt to leave holes in the plot that remain unanswered.
This movie is a combination of The Matrix, Blade and Romeo and Juliet. You have two feuding families of vampires and werewolves, whose only purpose is to eradicate the other...and oh yeah, they wear cool, dark outfits and sport state of the art weaponry (I thought the werewolves' bullets that contained sunlight in them was by far the coolest). You also have the talented and insanely hot Kate Beckinsale as the lead, kicking fierce butt. Her performance was by far the best of all, and you can feel her character's torment throughout. Save for one very bad actor, who sadly is a major character in the film, every other performance is excellent, and adds to the gothic darkness that is the setting of this movie. And of course, the special effects (especially the werewolves) were among the best I've ever seen.
The only thing I wanted more from this movie was a little more character development. Though the actors do an incredible job of making their characters realistic as if popping out of the pages of a graphic novel, the script, unfortunately, did not supply enough background on many on the support characters...but, there is still enough background to give them depth, and to give a damn when one of them gets dispatched. Also, almost every character does have a secret motive for his/her actions which adds to the story. But, that is truly my only complaint with the movie, that there could have been a little more backstory to each character...otherwise, this has been the best movie of the year by far, in my opinion. This is an exciting movie with great performances, dark, gothic set pieces, non-stop action and one of the best stories I have seen in a movie in a long time. I highly recommend Underworld...it truly does come close to giving the original Matrix a run for its money. 9/10 stars.