Underworld attracted me because it was a hot babe in shiny skin tight outfit who shoots people in fancy ways with her guns. It proved to be terribly disappointing with the gunplay promised in the trailer not really being fulfilled in the film. Still it had its moments I suppose, even though Kate Beckinsale wasn't a very good lead. So horribly lightweight. I went to see Underworld 2 presumably in the hope that it couldn't possibly be as bad as the first one. Sadly it felt like I was watching the same film all over again. And now there is another one. Of it.

Except this time it's not about Kate Beckinsale's character. It's Rhona Mitra this time. And it's set in the past. It is, as they say, a 'prequel'. It's the back story to something that Kate was told in the first film. It doesn't even matter that Bill Nighy is older now because he always looks old anyway in these films. But anyway. It's set in medieval times and vampires are basically ruling the roost. Some werewolves exist but can't change back into humans. But then one is born who can and he grows up to be like dead good at fighting and stuff (and also looking a bit like a mix between Simon Peg and the guy who plays Brian in Spaced). So Sonya, the daughter of head honcho vampire Viktor falls in love with him. Which obviously eventually leads to problems. And stuff.

But this is a rather focussed story compared to the other films and it's done very well. Well I say very well but its done better than the first two put together. The setting really really suits the film very well. It didn't work in the modern day somehow but this all seems to fit together rather nicely. Rhona manages to have a greater weight to her character than kate ever did. Perhaps her greater physicality helps matters, as it did in Doomsday, not that she gets to have many fight scenes. But she exudes a more solid charisma and manages to make the character connect, especially in how much she loves the wolf bloke.

There's also a sub story about slavery and freedom. The vamps keep a created race of werewolves (made from the hero of the film) as their slaves you see, along with a bunch of humans. They're awfully mean to them as well. Wolf bloke makes great motivational speeches to them to encourage them all to revolt and stuff at the appropriate time.

So yeah good stuff really. Which I didn't expect from an Underworld film. Tragic love story with a fair bit of action and attractive scenery. It almost could have done with a bit more time to develop the relationship between wolf bloke and sonya but then it might have overstayed its welcome.

Ignore the other films, but watch this one. That's my advice.

Oh and sometimes the frequent whispering of the characters made it difficult to hear what they were saying over the random ominous background noises.

Just one more thing.. I notice now it's Michael Sheen as Wolf Bloke so there's no wonder he looked a bit odd. Though he does seem to be in just about everything at the minute. This wasn't a role really suited to him though.

back to film reviews