Terrific action picture!

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2004)

I can't believe they were able to put this together for only 23 million. Puts many movies with vastly superior budgets to shame! (someone actually okayed the 120 million for Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle, perhaps the worst action movie ever made). Great special effects, good action sequences, a story that moves at a smart pace (though is occasionally predictable), and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
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There are some aspects of the plot which may require reflection however. For instance, the vampires seem ridiculously easy to kill (like in Blade), whereas the werewolves appear to be immensely difficult. Even after being shot in the head 3 times with silver bullets, Lucian does a lot of flexing and simply pops them out (how many times do you have to shoot them to kill them then?). The werewolves (Lycans) use ultraviolet bullets against the vampires, however when Selene sets out to kill the lead vampire, she merely slices a good chunk of his head off. She doesn't even use some sort of garlic/holy/ultraviolet blade, it was just Viktor's personal sword... If it were that simple, why wait until the 21st century to invent ultraviolet bullets? Just walk around with a bunch of swords a la Highlander, remember this war has been going on for over 1000 years!!! Also, when Selene finds out that the werewolves were not responsible for the war (or at least it shows her having doubts), she still arrives with a large force and proceeds to eradicate them. When it helps the plot, the werewolves seem to succumb fairly easily to her bullets, but when Lucian needed to survive, he proved much more difficult to kill. Finally, the fact that vampires fear light was not explored at all. The city they were in appeared to be in perpetual darkness. Selene never had to wait before zipping off in her fancy automobiles, it was always conveniently night. And the moronic Werewolves, who can waltz around in daylight, don't seem to see the advantage of attacking the vampires during the day....
However, those are just minor points. After all, it's a vampire movie, I did not go see it expecting Gone With the Wind. It's very stylish, I thought it was great the way the vampires in the coven all acted like some sort of landed gentry. They don't do much in the movie other than look half-dead and elegant, but it was a good contrast to the more earthly werewolves. I also didn't expect Viktor to be a Nazi-like vampire elder, unwilling to countenance the mixing of the races, even to the extent of burning his own daughter at the stake (with sunlight, she's a vamp after all). She does wake him to save the coven from Kraven's treachery, but is taken aback when Viktor does not side with her.
All in all, a great action movie. It rivals Blade and Equilibrium for enjoyment. I think the naysayers on this board just like to diss a good film because people are talking about this one like it had cult status (it's cooler to be negative). If you like vampire/werewolf movies, this one is terrific. Sure DVD buy. 8/10