Approximately two hours of misery, gloom, and mayhem, that's about it

Rating: 4/10 (20 October 2008)

Wow, for quite a while, I was actually expecting to like this movie! I don't recall even knowing about it upon its release in 2003, but was aware of its 2006 sequel, "Underworld: Evolution", while it was playing in theatres. I didn't bother going to see it, since I hadn't seen the original, but planned to eventually watch them both when I got around to it. Well, it took a while, but I've finally seen this first film of the two, and while I was expecting to like it enough to watch the sequel, it certainly didn't work out that way. I was very disappointed, and as a result, I saw no point in watching the sequel!
A war between Vampires and Lycans (werewolves) has been going on for centuries, and one of the vampire warriors stuck in this war is Selene. She is a death dealer, who tracks down Lycans to assassinate. After a battle against a group of Lycans in a subway station, it appears that her Lycan rivals were after a human named Michael Corvin, and following humans is not something they usually do! Unfortunately, Selene cannot get her concern across to vampire ruler Kraven, so she investigates the matter on her own, trying to find out what these werewolves want with Michael. The reason why this particular human is wanted by them is a big part of their plot to gain power over the vampires, something they haven't had for hundreds of years. Also, Lucian, the Lycan leader who was long thought to be dead, has returned!
I would say the film opens with a decent narration from Kate Beckinsale as Selene, but it goes from there to a tedious battle sequence (the subway station one, in this case). Unfortunately, that certainly isn't the only tedious battle sequence in the entire film. Some of the acting is pretty weak as well, such as Shane Brolly as Kraven, and the haunted music/sounds hardly ever seem to stop. Like I mentioned above, there really isn't much in the movie other than misery, gloom, and mayhem. I certainly wasn't expecting a really upbeat film, and have been impressed by dark action flicks before, but it all gets so repetitive here, it just keeps going and going, which gets pretty tiresome, maybe even depressing! Nothing really progresses! I didn't really care for any of the characters, either, and ended up not caring about what happened to them or how the story went. Worse still, in addition to all these problems, all the gloom and mayhem is seemingly endless! It seems like it will go on for all eternity, and as I watched, I really wondered when it was going to end, and didn't see any possible way it COULD end!
I think I was way too confident that I would like "Underworld", even though I wasn't expecting an absolute classic. With that confidence, I rented this action/horror flick and its sequel together, but sadly, that copy of "Underworld: Evolution" had to go back to the video store unwatched. At approximately two hours, does this film seem longer than it really is? Well, if you ask me, absolutely! To me, it seemed more like three or four hours! If the film was around, I don't know, half an hour/45 minutes shorter than it is, I would probably rate it 5/10, but since the flaws in the film continue for so long, never stopping until it's over, I think even an average rating would be a tad too generous! Even with all its big-budget special effects, there's something unprofessional and immature about this film, filled with modern clichés. So, sadly, the interesting idea of vampires vs. werewolves had so much potential that wasn't reached!