The Worst Film Ever

Perfect cast and a good story

hyped garbage

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

UNDERWORLD was movie in a time of my life, who was absolute a vampire and werewolf version of questions who I started to ask - just without the vampire and werewolf thrill....but in the metamorphosis of some character I could find reassurance and UNDERWORLD was a strong dark help!

Out of the blue, a hunky average-Joe hospital intern named Michael (Scott Speedman) is targeted by beings who turn out to be "Lycans", or werewolves. It turns out that there's been a war waging between Vampires and Lycans for centuries, and Michael's caught up in it because the Lycans have taken a keen interest in him. The Vampire who begins protecting Michael on a regular basis is the tough-as-nails Selene (a black leather clad, super sexy Kate Beckinsale). She also must deal with the traitorous Kraven (Shane Brolly) and Lycan head honcho Lucian (Michael Sheen).Admittedly, some of the gadgets here are cool. Each side has devised special bullets guaranteed to mess up opponents badly. Director Len Wiseman serves up a lot of fast and furious action, and the kind of rapid cutting common to so many modern films of this kind. Beckinsale looks exquisite while kicking ass, and Speedman is sure to get plenty of hearts fluttering himself. All of that said, it's hard to care very much about the characters for quite a while, until Wiseman starts giving the actors more dramatic moments. Even then, the film looks and feels drab, with characters struggling to keep their emotions in check. The heavy reliance on digital technology, unfortunately, turns too many of the effects into cartoons. (Not that this is surprising; "Underworld" was obviously done to have a comic book sort of approach.) The werewolves, in particular, look pretty bad. This is dark, rainy stuff with atmosphere to spare (this was filmed in Hungary), slick to a fault, but never very involving. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the "things are not as they seem" plot twist, although some viewers may charge that they saw it coming well ahead of time.Beckinsale and Speedman are nicely supported by a talented bunch of actors. Sheen is charismatic, Bill Nighy has excellent screen presence as head Vampire Viktor, and Sophia Myles has plenty of sex appeal herself in the role of Erika. Brolly isn't so hot, however; his reaction to hearing some "shocking" news is priceless.Screenplay by actor Danny McBride, with story credit going to McBride, fellow actor Kevin Grevioux (both of them also have roles in the film), and director Wiseman.Followed by three more "Underworld" features.Six out of 10.

Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is a vampire warrior who finds herself slap bang in the middle of a war between werewolves or Lycans and vampires because she falls in love with a human host called Michael (Scott Speedman). But it isn't only Selene that is in the middle of this war it turns out that Michael is part of the war too and he is seemingly an integral part of the battle between the Lycans and the vampires....First things first this is a stylistic triumph and it's fair to say that it's hard not to be blown away by the visuals and the whole style of the product. Whilst this has a lot of the Matrix style choreography and impressive visuals what it doesn't have is a particularly impressive story or engaging narrative....There is a war brewing between the Lycans and the vampires and Michael (a human) is unfortunately caught up between the two rivalling factions. Ordinarily, the idea of two warring factions and one man/person being caught in the middle can present itself as being an interesting idea, but with Underworld the whole concept is so poorly conceived and developed that it gets to the point where you find yourself rather indifferent to everything.The film's true shining glory is in its style and presentation; it's clear that director Len Wiseman has watched the Matrix and other Wachowski films as his approach here feels very similar; eye-popping visuals and impressive choreography, but the narrative feels hollow and underwritten and as a story it never really engages.The performances are a mixed bag and whilst Kate Beckinsale is absolutely gorgeous she is very bland in the lead role (and it really pains me to say this as I was a big fan of her late father when he was in Porridge). Her supporting cast do fare better with the likes of Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly and Bill Nighy all of whom put in solid supporting performances.One other thing working against the film (other than Beckinsale's performance) is the unrelentingly drab and gloomy tone. The whole tone of the film is way too dark and coupled with a weak and underwritten narrative it also feels quite boring and it's fair to say that the two hour running time feels at least 50% longer than the actual run time.Underworld will undoubtedly impress younger viewers who may get taken in by the garish visuals, but for mature audiences or for anyone with half a brain the dreary tone and weak story are going to serve more as an annoyance and make one wish that they'd left the Underworld well alone.

I saw this first in a theatre in 2003. Revisited it recently on a DVD. Seen all its sequels in theatre. The plot - Kate Beckinsale is a vampire looking incredibly hot in ridiculously tight leather matrix style clothes whose job it is to eliminate the werewolves as part of the centuries old war between the two species. Her acting is good too. Things change when Beckinsale tries to protect a human, Speedman who is targetted by the werewolves for some reasons. The movie has a distinctively Gothic look, with great attention given to the backdrop. Every inch of the cinematography is polished. The architecture and costumes are true fashion statements. This world is so dense with aggressiveness it is almost surreal. Borrowing from The Matrix and Blade, the director Len Wiseman made Underworld more of a goth action flick n less of a vampire/werewolf. Nonetheless pretty enjoyable action flick. Was happy that none of those hand held shaky cam stuff was added.