Lotta Bangs for its Bucks

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2003)

Not a perfect film by any means; however, it suffers severely from a lack of development along with action film clichés, and most aspects of the production meet with varying degrees of success. Funny thing about the flaws though, many (all) `blockbuster' films suffer from a similar or identical set of flaws so I'm eager to see how the public as a whole welcomes Underworld.
Gripe #1. Lack of development. We are thrown into the world of vampires warring with werewolves and the lives of these characters who are going to tell the story, yet we never get an introduction nor do we ever get enough information to fully buy into their motivations behind some of their actions (most notably: Michael and Selene's 'relationship'). There are traces of a plethora of nice little character traits and back stories and Underworld could have developed perhaps the deepest set of characters of 2003's action films if only they expanded this story to encompass multiple films and not pack everything into two hours. Alas, we're left with the feeling of many cut scenes and only hints of what could have been.
With that said, the characters and story of Underworld are still infinitely deeper and believable than the likes of Matrix Reloaded which lacked any development for the better part of its running time.
Gripe #2. Goes with #1, lightning fast pacing with no indication of time passage especially since we view events from the Vampire's perspective and thus never see daylight in the present timeline. Underworld is a movie taking place at night in a gothic landscape, and if you don't listen to dialogue and pay attention to events, the movie could all take place in one night for all you know.
Gripe #3. Action film cliches - things that look wicked on screen but make no sense whatsoever, hero killing 10 people but 10 people can't take her down, etc, you've seen action films you know the clichés and if you're going to whine about it I have to ask `Why do you still go to action films?'
Misc #1: Minor tweaks to both vampire and werewolf mythologies/portrayals in the film. Purists while inevitably whine endlessly as if they've identified the single undisputed source of all vampiric/lycanthropic information and traits to each species. But the more aware moviegoers will realize that liberties have always been taken with the subject matter depending on who the writer happens to be and view the film as a slightly different interpretation.
Praise #1. Granted I did complain about lack of development, but this bit of praise goes out to Underworld for trying. Underworld does have a nice story and matching characters whose depth easily surpasses the likes of the latest Star Wars, Matrix, and Terminator entries, and is on par with Pirates of the Caribbean (minus the masterfully created Captain Jack Sparrow compliments of Johnny Depp.) Because, as stated above, Underworld at least gave me the impression that there was a character to explore, that there was more to these people and this story, that this film could be made better by making it a trilogy and not a single film. SW, Matrix 2, and T3 left me feeling that the actors had nothing to work with from square one and winged it; I felt their screen plays didn't give enough damn to develop them or bother trying, and thus I don't care to see any of them again. I actually have a desire to see the Special Edition or Director's cut of Underworld.
Praise #2. A nice gothic, yet slick 21st century, visual style featuring some flowing transitions from scene to scene. Tim Burton meets James Cameran meets the Scott brothers. I would throw the Wachowski name out there too, but I feel they've gone the way of George Lucas and sold their souls for an oversized budget that goes to waste where artistic creativity and genius execution used to reside. Underworld's fluid transitions actually makes keeping track of time in the film difficult since one scene flows into the next with no visual indication that a 24 hour cycle has passed. It is a different experience, I'll give Underworld that and award the film points for it.
Priase #3. Very important: Underworld does not feel like a video game in every frame thanks to the more concrete sets and effects and some restraint in the CGI department. If Underworld succeeds and gains a larger budget, please, for the love of God, please continue to show restraint with the CGI. CGI is a tool, an effective tool, but it's not meant to be the movie (ie Matrix 2, Star Wars 2.) Granted Underworld did show the Lycan transformations a little too quickly, but I said the movie was good not perfect.
All in all, Underworld was a worthwhile investment on my part. My appreciation for the quality of the film increased upon discovering the size of the movie's budget. Underworld got far more bang for its buck than virtually all the summer's major players, and it's always nice seeing money well spent.