radiohead
Staff Writer
Movie Review: Underworld
MINOR SPOILER WARNING: Plot summary without specific details of events including the ending, etc.
Underworld is a fantasy fiction movie about a battle for supremacy between the vampires and the lichens (werewolves). This is the main and pretty much sole source of conflict in the movie, as almost every event revolves around this ongoing war.
The plot of Underworld is as follows; I do not recall a specific time period announced in the movie, but it appears to take place sometime in the future. This is backed up by not only the standard automatic weapons but also some futuristic weapons, including ultraviolet bullets (to kill the vampires) and fluid-filled silver nitrate bullets (to kill the lichens). The vampires and lichens live in a world also inhabited by humans, but they tend to avoid the humans, and I'm not even sure if the humans are aware that they exist since they appear to be somewhat "normal" looking. But regardless, the vampires and werewolves are enemies of each other stemming back to feuds hundreds of years before. Each race is determined to exterminate the other in order to become the dominant group, which leads to fighting, fighting, and still more fighting between the two groups throughout the movie. There are a few slower paced parts in the movie but even those revolve around the main conflict between the vampires and lichens. The abundance of fighting does eventually lead to somewhat of a "final" battle in which one group is overthrown, at least for the time being.
The good: The concept of Underworld was a pretty original idea for a movie, and I think overall the film does it justice. Underworld's characters looked very nice and suited their roles nicely. The vampires looked pale, dressed gothic, and just looked overall vampire-like. The lichens were big and seemed animal-like, even in their human states. The lichens' animations as they morphed from human to werewolf and vice versa looked very nice as well, including the werewolf fighting scenes. Basically, the movie did a nice job of making unreal parts seem real through decent special effects. The sound was implemented nicely, though at times the nu-metal music seemed predictable. Sound effects were decent, nothing outstanding but they did their job well. And the movie was paced well, so that there weren't many slow parts.
The bad: The movie's plot was a bit too linear, and could have had more variety to it. When the entire movie is centered around fighting between two groups, and that's practically all there is, the combat really has to blow you away. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Underworld. Maybe I've just been spoiled by The Matrix style gun battles and the like, but Underworld's fighting sequences just seemed a bit tame in comparison. The opening scene in particular let me down a little; yes, it was fast paced and sort of interesting, but besides that it was just your basic gunfight. No choreographed hand to hand combat, bullet-time, or any other special effects to spice it up. That was basically my only grief with the movie, that it was a bit boring as far as the fact that there was little more than fighting, and little interesting plot development. Sure, there was one or two plot twists thrown in there, but there could have definitely been more.
Overall: 3/5 I'd say this movie would definitely appeal more to those that are fans of comics/fantasy fiction. This is the theme of Underworld and it helps if you're already a fan of the genre. A more serious movie buff may be turned off at the very fictional plot, but the bottom line is movies such as this are meant to take the viewer to a place they've never been before.
Note: This is ready to be put up on the main page if you guys want. Sonic usually does the other part with the cast of characters and the background information about the film and all that, so I'm not sure how that's going to go. Maybe we just wait till he gets his power back if no one else can do it?
MINOR SPOILER WARNING: Plot summary without specific details of events including the ending, etc.
Underworld is a fantasy fiction movie about a battle for supremacy between the vampires and the lichens (werewolves). This is the main and pretty much sole source of conflict in the movie, as almost every event revolves around this ongoing war.
The plot of Underworld is as follows; I do not recall a specific time period announced in the movie, but it appears to take place sometime in the future. This is backed up by not only the standard automatic weapons but also some futuristic weapons, including ultraviolet bullets (to kill the vampires) and fluid-filled silver nitrate bullets (to kill the lichens). The vampires and lichens live in a world also inhabited by humans, but they tend to avoid the humans, and I'm not even sure if the humans are aware that they exist since they appear to be somewhat "normal" looking. But regardless, the vampires and werewolves are enemies of each other stemming back to feuds hundreds of years before. Each race is determined to exterminate the other in order to become the dominant group, which leads to fighting, fighting, and still more fighting between the two groups throughout the movie. There are a few slower paced parts in the movie but even those revolve around the main conflict between the vampires and lichens. The abundance of fighting does eventually lead to somewhat of a "final" battle in which one group is overthrown, at least for the time being.
The good: The concept of Underworld was a pretty original idea for a movie, and I think overall the film does it justice. Underworld's characters looked very nice and suited their roles nicely. The vampires looked pale, dressed gothic, and just looked overall vampire-like. The lichens were big and seemed animal-like, even in their human states. The lichens' animations as they morphed from human to werewolf and vice versa looked very nice as well, including the werewolf fighting scenes. Basically, the movie did a nice job of making unreal parts seem real through decent special effects. The sound was implemented nicely, though at times the nu-metal music seemed predictable. Sound effects were decent, nothing outstanding but they did their job well. And the movie was paced well, so that there weren't many slow parts.
The bad: The movie's plot was a bit too linear, and could have had more variety to it. When the entire movie is centered around fighting between two groups, and that's practically all there is, the combat really has to blow you away. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Underworld. Maybe I've just been spoiled by The Matrix style gun battles and the like, but Underworld's fighting sequences just seemed a bit tame in comparison. The opening scene in particular let me down a little; yes, it was fast paced and sort of interesting, but besides that it was just your basic gunfight. No choreographed hand to hand combat, bullet-time, or any other special effects to spice it up. That was basically my only grief with the movie, that it was a bit boring as far as the fact that there was little more than fighting, and little interesting plot development. Sure, there was one or two plot twists thrown in there, but there could have definitely been more.
Overall: 3/5 I'd say this movie would definitely appeal more to those that are fans of comics/fantasy fiction. This is the theme of Underworld and it helps if you're already a fan of the genre. A more serious movie buff may be turned off at the very fictional plot, but the bottom line is movies such as this are meant to take the viewer to a place they've never been before.
Note: This is ready to be put up on the main page if you guys want. Sonic usually does the other part with the cast of characters and the background information about the film and all that, so I'm not sure how that's going to go. Maybe we just wait till he gets his power back if no one else can do it?
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