My Thoughts On Underworld (2003).
- KatMarie
- Jul 10, 2018
- 2 min read
After all of these years, I finally saw the first Underworld movie completely. I had always wanted to watch the series because I love vampires. it's pretty strange that I hadn't yet. But, here's my collective thoughts on 2003's "Underworld". Yes, i'm 15 years late on this but so what!
The film begins with Selene perched on the ledge of a building high above the city. In an amazing monologue she tells us what led up to this war between the lycans and the vampires. Lycans being werewolves. I thought the scene was beautifully shot and her speech was beautifully written. Almost poetic. Selene and another vampire, known as death dealers, are tracking and assassinating lycans. In doing so, they discover a few key things to the stories plot. I won't say them here as I want this to be a mostly spoiler free review.
Fast forward a bit, Selene arrives at the vampire coven's lair to tell the others what they've found. I fell in love with the mansion. The Victorian Gothic atmosphere was everything my little dark heart could ever want. And the dress Kraven wanted Selene to try on was gorgeous. I'm not going to lie, I was really hoping to see her in it lol Kate Beckinsale would have rocked it!
Kraven was a dick from the very beginning. I don't know how else to say that. Selene's devil may care attitude was everything. I love that she refused to let him or anyone else stop her from perusing what she thought was right. That's a truly bad ass woman! And when Kraven smacked her, ooh I almost lost it. I was more than ready for him to get his, if ya know what I mean.
Viktor was great! I found his backstory and general lore intriguing. It had that old school vampire king type of vibe. I of course began to see him in a different light by the end of the movie, though. Michael was interesting.. I am excited to see what he (and Selene) do in the future. Will we see more hybrids? Will they have some themselves? Etc. The progression of the series will definitely be something i'm looking forward to seeing. I loved seeing this version of the classic vampires vs werewolves tale.
Overall, I liked the movie. I had some issues with it but they weren't enough to turn me away from the series. Like, since when are werewolves just as pale as the vampires? That didn't make much sense to me. Also, the CGI and special effects were horrible for 2003. Some 80's movies had better effects. My biggest issue with this was when the lycans fought and transformed. It looked horrible, and slightly distracting. I say this as someone who is almost never bothered by bad effects. The only other complaint I have is that after that opening monologue, I struggled for a while to pay attention. I'm not sure why, it just lost me I guess. But thankfully I found myself totally immersed again and really enjoyed the movie.
I give Underworld 3.5/5 Stars. It was slightly above average for me and definitely a film i'll forever enjoy, despite it's flaws.