A few talented actors make up for the plot holes.

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2003)

**SPOILERS**

I got my $6 worth(matinee). I felt that since I was entertained and said "man that is cool" more than once the production was a success. I was sold on the concept, and was not suprised by its delivery. Gritty, insanely loud and intense action scenes, and that great feeling in your gut when you know you're about to see something cool. There were a few problem areas that limit my ability to recommend this to everyone. I am a story first kind of guy, and when tackling subjects with such a long and complicated history it seems so bizarre that the rules of these vampires/werewolves were not set early on. I think this was the first vampire movie I have ever seen were a human wasn't bitten by a vampire... Doesn't happen. Only after M. Corvin is infected with the Lycan virus is he bitten by Selina. As a result of which I found it harder to look at them as Vampires, because they were all so human-like. Very emotional, and actually quite whiney. You would think that immortality would bring with it wisdom. Craven bugged me from the start. Here is a guy who's over 500years old, and rules all the vampires, yet not one point during the movie did I feel one ounce of respect for him, and certainly not his leadership ability. I mean.. he just kind of complains a lot and fly's off the handle at the most seemingly mundane thing, like a teenage girl. It was laughable. I also found it funny that every single vampire enters a room by opening both doors in epic fashion. Like a cowboy. The tide of drama threatened to drown the audience and spill over into laughter on a few occasions. It was saved by the performances of Scott Speedman and Kate Beckinsale, plus a few others. Notably talented was Lucien, the head of the werewolves, played by Michael Sheen (Beckinsales real-life beau). Very likable, and helped me to side with the werewolves, if not morally certainly because they were less bitchy. I also had a hard time with the back story. How can you convince someone of the death of a werewolve by showing them 2 square inches of skin... ??? I mean.. How do you buy that if you're fighting a war. If we found Osama's kneecap, would we give up? Certainly not. Also the idea that you can kill these beings with special bullets is just... well.. kind of anticlimactic. I was not astounded by the abilities of these immortals, which is absolutely necessary to be enthralled. Otherwise its just a bunch of people shooting at eachother. However with that aside, I found that the part of me that told me to see this movie was very well satiated by the intensity of the parts of the story that they did care to tell. The vamp-wolf combo thing was most interesting. He looks like night crawler a bit.. I haven't seen that tackled before and if it wasn't for this possibility of a new potential beast I would find this movie lacking. I also felt that Kate Beckinsale's acting job was... very good. Even though she was dark, quiet and seemed very simplistic on the surface I had the feeling that she was a deeper character regardless of the lack of evidence. This can only be done by the actor/actress. She still seemed to have a tortured soul. I think very few people could pull that off. Praise to the craftsmen who worked on this movie. The effects, cinematography, sets... all absolutely top-notch. There was a lot of thought put into this movie, and some very talented people are out there in the industry. They borrowed heavily from Celtic designs and took advantage of the locations very well. If they do a sequel I hope they pull back from the grand scale and focus more on just a few characters so we can have answers to the questions that arise.
Remember, whenever you pay to see a movie you're voting for movies like it to be produced in the future.