Underworld not getting good reviews...

[Krug]

Not looking forward to Underworld II, by any means.

 

[reapersaurus]

OK, Krug, since you posted your needless opinion on Underworld 2 (hint: since you've mentioned at least 4 times you're distatse for Underworld, why would anyone assume you are looking forward to U2?), I'll needlessly say that my wife and I are looking forward to Underworld2.

It's funny how the longer it's been out, people are now coming and basically saying "Underworld wasn't what I think of when I thjink of werewolves and vampires... it SUCKED so bad, It was an utter waste of time."

Newsflash: Movies are NOT going to be copies of what you dream up and want in your head. Take the movie for what it presented and rate it on those merits, otherwise your review is baseless.

For example: I've repeatedly heard that Underworld sucked because the vamps and wolves used guns, and didn't use much of their natural weaponry.
Wahh Wahh.
I would have loved to see them go at it mano-y-mano also, but it didn;t get in my way of watching the movie. There are 3 major reasons why they didn't have them go claw-to-fang:
1) it would have been hard to do.
2) This was a fairly low budget picture.
3) They presented a world in which guns were more effective than natural weaponry.

Everybody who has complained about the lack of claw use has completely missed point #3.

 

[Viking Bastard]

In summary: I stop acting like a purist and stop placing faith or no faith on filmmakers. If it's a good movie, then it's a good movie, despite what sophisticates and critics think.

I'm not really sure if you're calling me a purist or not here, but
my point was meant to be an anti-purist one, even if it didn't
come across very well.

 

[Abraxas]

Well, since I was the one who said it was a waste of time I'll just assume some of this is directed at me. If not, oh well.

Since I didn't see it until sunday I couldn't post anything about it until after it had been out a while.

As for it not living up to expectations - well, since I like B scifi and horror movies - I expected to like it. It didn't live up to that expectation, not because it violated some self imposed ideal on what vampires and werewolves should be (actually the vampires and werewolves acted pretty much like I expected them to), but because it was bad.

First let me list the few things I did like.
1) Viktor and Lucien. These are the only two characters I thought worked at all.
2) Viktor's transformation.
3) The general "look" of the movie. I like these types of weird lighting effects.

Without giving any items away to spoil it for those who still want to see the movie I can sum up why I thought it was bad like so...

The plot wasn't strong enough to make a good movie.
The acting wasn't good enough to cover the weak plot and make it a good movie.
The action (except for a few key scenes) was too silly to cover the acting or weak plot.
The inconsistancies were too glaring to overlook to just enjoy the show.
I felt the ending was lame - I'm just plain old tired of the effect they use at the end

All the eye candy and special effects in the world wouldn't cover up what I thought was bad about this movie.

 

[jdavis]

OK, Krug, since you posted your needless opinion on Underworld 2 (hint: since you've mentioned at least 4 times you're distatse for Underworld, why would anyone assume you are looking forward to U2?), I'll needlessly say that my wife and I are looking forward to Underworld2.

It's funny how the longer it's been out, people are now coming and basically saying "Underworld wasn't what I think of when I thjink of werewolves and vampires... it SUCKED so bad, It was an utter waste of time."

Newsflash: Movies are NOT going to be copies of what you dream up and want in your head. Take the movie for what it presented and rate it on those merits, otherwise your review is baseless.

For example: I've repeatedly heard that Underworld sucked because the vamps and wolves used guns, and didn't use much of their natural weaponry.
Wahh Wahh.
I would have loved to see them go at it mano-y-mano also, but it didn;t get in my way of watching the movie. There are 3 major reasons why they didn't have them go claw-to-fang:
1) it would have been hard to do.
2) This was a fairly low budget picture.
3) They presented a world in which guns were more effective than natural weaponry.

Everybody who has complained about the lack of claw use has completely missed point #3.

I didn't miss point 3 at all I just wanted them to "Hook it up Old Skool". They went way way out of their way to make guns more effective than claws (then failed to have them use the guns properly in the end , go figure), they went well out of their way to make it a movie about shooting each other, that's fine and good but I wanted a movie where being a vampire or a werewolf actually meant something (the few fights they had were very good), see they got the bullets so destructive that they could of trained monkeys to shoot each other (or humans). See when you get right down to it the whole premise of the movie breaks down where they tried to out cool themselves with the special bullets. If the guns were more effective than natural weapontry what was the point of trying to create a super hybrid? Why did they need a Vampire/Werewolf combo to kill the elder vampire when they could of just shot them full of "sunlight" bullets (heck they killed the other elder). See here is a plan, all the werewolfs get together (they already were together) and attack the big mansion during the day, nuse a couple of rocket propelled genades and bang your in, when you get deep enough into the compound that the vampires can stay out of direct sunlight then you let them have it with your super cool bullets. Another couple of rocket grenades into the tomb area, drag the beef jerky elders out in the sun or set them on fire or shoot them with your guns. So why do you need the the super combo vampire/werewolf? What's the whole point? The guns are much more powerful than even the vampire/werewlof combo (heck I still don't understand how he recovered being shot? He was still half werewolf and now he is half vampire too, if he had both strengths wouldn't he have both weakensses too?). Sunlight bullets? Why don't they just use big UV lamps everywhere?

I just wanted to see some vampires and werewolfs being vampires and werewolves in the movie about vampires and werewolfs. It's not like I want to sit down and punch holes the size of school busses in the plot (which is suprisingly easy) I just wanted to see them fighting instead of shooting, that's all. I really don't care about Underworld 2 either but this Underworld prequal sounds like a good idea (before the guns stuff may be fun).

 

[Kai Lord]

I didn't miss point 3 at all I just wanted them to "Hook it up Old Skool". They went way way out of their way to make guns more effective than claws (then failed to have them use the guns properly in the end , go figure),

The film established that the Lycan's wolf forms are very capable of taking out machine gun wielding vampires. Since 90% of the werewolves couldn't change form at will, it isn't a great leap to assume that the special UV bullets were for them to use while in human form. The night of final fight was a full moon, so all bets were off and all the Lycans changed.

This is in addition to Lucien clearly reprimanding them early on for their tendency to ignore tactics and behave "like rabid dogs." There's a big difference between characters having flaws and the filmmakers making mistakes.

If the guns were more effective than natural weapontry what was the point of trying to create a super hybrid?

It was made very clear that for the vamps, guns weren't always more effective (Selene fleeing from Raze at the beginning, her shooting through the floor, etc.)

Now replace all those Lycans that had the gun toting Selene on the run with much stronger and faster Hybrids. There you go. And again, if Lucien was going to lead a force prone to behaving like rabid dogs, then obviously he had determined they would be the best damn force of rabid dogs he could possibly make.

Spoiler

Then there's also the point of what started the entire war. The union of Lucien and his vampire lover, and their failed attempt to conceive a hybrid out of love. Viktor felt the mere concept of hybrids was a threat to the vampire society, and after Lucien's unborn child was murdered, he obviously wanted to make a Hybrid out of principle, and to spite Viktor's way of thinking, in addition to just being able to kill the vampires easier.

 

[jdavis]

The film established that the Lycan's wolf forms are very capable of taking out machine gun wielding vampires. Since 90% of the werewolves couldn't change form at will, it isn't a great leap to assume that the special UV bullets were for them to use while in human form. The night of final fight was a full moon, so all bets were off and all the Lycans changed.

This is in addition to Lucien clearly reprimanding them early on for their tendency to ignore tactics and behave "like rabid dogs." There's a big difference between characters having flaws and the filmmakers making mistakes.


It was made very clear that for the vamps, guns weren't always more effective (Selene fleeing from Raze at the beginning, her shooting through the floor, etc.)

Now replace all those Lycans that had the gun toting Selene on the run with much stronger and faster Hybrids. There you go. And again, if Lucien was going to lead a force prone to behaving like rabid dogs, then obviously he had determined they would be the best damn force of rabid dogs he could possibly make.

Spoiler

Then there's also the point of what started the entire war. The union of Lucien and his vampire lover, and their failed attempt to conceive a hybrid out of love. Viktor felt the mere concept of hybrids was a threat to the vampire society, and after Lucien's unborn child was murdered, he obviously wanted to make a Hybrid out of principle, and to spite Viktor's way of thinking, in addition to just being able to kill the vampires easier.

What I was talking about in the end was the fact that the werewolves were using guns all over the place yet not the special ammo that they showed laying around on a table. I liked the end more because they did fight rather than shoot. My whole point was about guns being more powerful, more powerful guns took away for the need to be a vampire or a werewolf. Heck a werewolf who changed in the movie rather than using the super ammo was actually weakening himself as the ammo was much more likely to kill instantly. It's not a director flaw or a loophole it's just the way the movie was designed that took away from the need to change forms or use their supernatural powers.

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

My two cents:
I saw the movie and liked it.
It could have been better...but most movies fall into that category.

 

[jdavis]

http://www.moviehole.net/news.php?newsid=2426

Last week it was officially announced that Screen Gems are planning two sequels to “Underworld”, the werewolf-vampire actioner starring Scott Speedman and Kate Beckinsale. Cinema Confidential caught up with Director Len Wiseman, who revealed what constitution they might take.

"There’s actually a sequel and a prequel that was mapped out when we sold this film. [Co-writer] Danny McBride and myself – there was so much that we wanted to tell in this story that it was getting a bit confusing for us to map out all the history and the wars. We said, 'You know what? Let's map out a long story that would maybe span out three films and let's then be able to tell our film in the middle.' But we had to kind of map out the whole thing to get to the point where we are now because it does have a lot of layers in it. But we do want to tell a lot of that back story and I'm obsessed with going back to the Dark Ages and showing the war when it was legions of werewolves fighting an army of vampires on horseback, invading their castle. I think that would be insane visuals! So that's a bit of what the sequel is. We are already in the deal for the sequel and the studio's incredibly excited about it. I think the 15 minutes [of the sequel] will be a prequel for the sequel, much like an 'Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade' type of situation."

According to the director, Speedman and Beckinsale are likely to return.

 

[reapersaurus]

Boy, that Dark Ages prequel idea sure sounds good.
It would solve the "gun problem" that people had (including me, to a small extent), and would be much more unique in film history.

I REALLY hope they get to do that with Underworld2.