Derivative stuff without too much of specific interest but does enough to tick the boxes for the teenage male target audience

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2006)

When their feared and ruthless leader Lucian is killed, the Lycan clan is scattered. The Vampires claim victory in the war but set out to hunt the remaining Lycans to the point of extinction. Selene is one of a group of vampire warriors grouped together for just this task. They stalk and kill Lycan but, when a simple trail into a subway station turns into a massive gun battle, Selene uncovers evidence of a possible pack living underground but, more worryingly, finds the Lycan were in the subway station to try and capture a specific human. Meanwhile Lucian is not as dead as rumoured and instead plots his next action in the war as Selene tries to figure out what the Lycans want with human Michael.
The trivia entry on the IMDb page for this film states that it was sued for copyright infringement just before release. It also states that a sequel and prequel were greenlit on Canadian ticket sales alone. Both these things I can easily believe because at times the film is so derivative that many different people could have attempted to sue, plus it ticks so many boxes for what the teenage market wanted that the studios were bound to come back for more as long as it sold. Of course moaning that an action blockbuster is derivative is a bit like moaning that fire burns  it comes with the territory. The pitch about Romeo/Juliet is nonsense as the story contains very little of this and what there is is weak. The overall story is good enough to hold the action together though, even if it is nothing that clever or interesting.
Current Die Hard 4 director Wiseman directs well enough, capturing the Gothic feel of it while also providing all the cool things that the target audience would be looking for. So we have lots of tight PVC (particularly around the bum of Beckinsale) and lots of action to get them in. The action is alright but it does feel like the Wachowski brothers could have also been reaching for their lawyers  particularly looking at the opening subway shoot out, which screams Matrix from every frame. The cast are reasonable good and benefit from some strange but effective casting choices. Beckinsale is in great shape and does the whole "sexy, dark martial arts babe" thing really well. Shame more wasn't asked of her in terms of character but it is what it is. Speedman is too bland to really write too much about so I won't. Sheen is at a disadvantage with me because the last few times I have seen him he has been playing Tony Blair to the point where I find it hard to separate them. He is quite good but it is hard not to be distracted by him playing a leader involved in an endless war  particularly one who continues to be leader no matter what happens to his clan. Nighy was a good choice and is effective in his role  mostly because he really fits the look. Fellow Belfast ("I'm outta here") lad Brolly is poor. The rest of the cast features notable turns from Myles, Prison Break's Miller and Grevioux (one of the writers) with a voice so deep that I felt his lines before I heard them.
Overall then a typical teenage-boy-targeted summer blockbuster. Monsters, sexy martial arts girls in tight clothes and lots of bullets = box office returns and the promise of more. If you are in target audience and just looking for this then this will deliver just what you expect it to. Just don't expect the story or characters to be anything that good or for anything about it to be different or better than what you would see in lots of other films all aiming for the same audience.