Underworld
directed by Len Wiseman
written by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, Danny McBride,
starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy, Erwin Leder, Sophia Myles, Robbie Gee, Wentworth Mille, Kevin Grevioux, Zita Görög
It’s war between Vampires and Lycans in this crisp, temperamental and exquisitely crafted horror film that brings both mythologies clearer into focus than just about any film ever has before.
It’s clear the Lycans and the Vampires don’t care for each other and this has been going on for at least fourteen hundred years. There are outbreaks of violence including early on when Lycans open fire on a subway station. Selene (Beckinsale), a death dealer who hunts Lycans, determines that they are tracking a human which is highly uncharacteristic of them. Selene finds the human, a medical intern named Michael Corbin (Speedman), and struggles to protect him. Selene has a special hate in her heart for the Lycans because she firmly believes they slaughtered her entire family when she was small. Her zeal is fiercely made manifest at every opportunity to shed Lycan blood.
The film relates substantial aspects of the Lycan and Vampire histories including the origin of the feud. The mythologies are worked out quite precisely and the subsequent framework is useful for building up workable knowledge of the creatures. The film seems to cast the Lycans as more aggressive in terms of facilitating the war whereas the Vampires are more reactionary. This tends to create in the viewer’s head a sympathy for the Vampires which proves to be problematic as the film progresses. Regardless, the emergence of Lucian (Sheen) is a glorious thing indeed and it’s impossible to take one’s eyes off of him once he appears on screen.
At the core of this film is the methods employed to treat a human whose blood the Lycans desire in order to make something manifest that comes into play later in the film. He is but a plaything batted about by both sides of the divide and finds himself in great peril at every turn. He doesn’t know where to turn or who to trust and his plight is always at jeopardy throughout the film. He’s the key prize in the battle and Kate can’t help but fall hard for the boy. She wants him desperately and one wonders if her pursuance of him is entirely personal or if it really does have to do with the integrity of the coven.
There are two Vampire covens in this film and they are supposed to come together and unite under one banner. Amelia (Görög.) is supposed to wake up Marcos in order to usher in a new age with him as leader. However, a gang of Lycans assassinate Amelia and her entire party on the subway. The death scene is rife with erotic energy as the bodies lie soaked in matter and blood. This is perhaps because of the brief scene with Amelia walking across the frame wearing a magnificent necklace and looking all the world as bored as the rest of her kind.
Indeed, we are introduced to the bulk of the Vampires in a most decadent setting. They are all sitting around on expensive antique furniture consumed with ennui and sighing. They are dressed to kill but there is no legitimate energy in the room. They are all sucking it out with their pouting and insouciance. Still, it’s quite a scene with an entire room of impossibly pale, delicately featured Vampires all dressed up for the great blood letting.
Kraven (Brolly) is the de facto leader of the Vampires and he is harboring a terrible secret that changes everything within the Vampire world. He has made an agreement with Lucian which according to Vampire orthodoxy is perverse and vile. The actual leader of the Vampires is Viktor (Nighy) and he has been on ice for hundreds of years until Selene raises him from the dead because she desperately needs his help to solve the terrible dilemma her kind is facing. Once Viktor is awake, the entire game changes. He proves himself to be utterly exclusionary regarding Lycans and as feverishly oppressive of their kind in every way imaginable. His hatred supercedes that of all others and he has dedicated his life to eliminating as many of them as possible. Late in the film we learn what this truly means and the implications attached to it; we learn the truth about Viktor as well as where and why the war started and it’s a revelation. It puts the earlier parts of the film into an entirely different perspective which adds a genuine layer of necessity to the story as well as a fundamental primacy.
The Lycans are best represented by the incredible bulk of Raze (Grevioux) who seems to be the sort who would rather blast his way through than waste valuable killing time negotiating. He’s a central figure to this drama and a terrible force to be reckoned with at every turn. Whenever there is trouble he is most certainly to be found lurking about. Selene is usually out front of the hit squads and her shooting skills are unassailable.
It’s quite a joy to watch Kate Beckinsale shoot a gun. A sexy woman (perhaps the sexiest to ever handle a weapon on screen) who is able to maintain such control is an aesthetic and erotic pleasure that is exceedingly rare in cinema. It’s the perfect combination of power and ballet and it always elicits a bona fide reaction out of me whenever I am afforded the opportunity to witness it. In this case, the vinyl skin tight outfit (shades again of Pfeiffer) and perfect bone structure lends itself to a series of immaculate shots where Ms. Beckinsale is staving off the enemy with a series of extraordinary firearms. It’s supreme and quite delicious.
The transformations into Lycans are gloriously wrought and effective; they look terrifying and very real in their rendering. They are orchestrated by a true artist who understands subtlety and the importance of serving the form of the creature instead of getting too carried away with an orgy of pointless style. These are streamlined wolves who truly look like they could rip out a person’s throat without even thinking about it. They are in fact some of the most frightening creatures to ever be cast upon a screen. They look menacing, they sound perfectly dreadful and they move with such lightening speed it seems they can never be subdued. One hopes they continue to enjoy their autonomy and that they do not succumb to the Vampire’s bullets.
It’s interesting who the audience roots for. Are Vampire fans necessarily opposed to Lycans?; is this a war that has resonance in the actual world or is it made up strictly for this film? It seems that it would make perfect sense if this were a legitimate antipathy between the two creatures at least it makes the mythologies more relevant and pressing. Still, are Vampire freaks simply long to see the Vampire’s succeed in this war or can they find sympathy with the Lycans and their actual plight over the generations? Can werewolf afficionados see the Vampiric point of view? Of course there are many who remain on the fence unwilling unable to effectively choose between one or the other. They may be more objectively to let the film play out without forcing their judgment onto the material.
The performances in this film are as good as can be expected. Kate Beckinsale gets to show off her fabulous form and shoot guns; she provides a gritty, intense aspect to the film and is highly charismatic throughout. She’s tough and feminine which is always a lethal combination in my book. It’s probably more thrilling because she is a woman who could kick most any man’s ass and being a man I tend to revel in the prospect of being brutalized by such a divine creature. Michael Sheen is simply magnificent as the Lycan leader who knows how to make an entrance and how to put the fear of death into his adversaries. Sheen is completely on top of this character and drives him forward with alacrity and great precision. Scott Speedman holds his own as the sole human in this film. He’s strong and steadfast and despite being bound for much of the film he radiates a tremendous amount of charisma throughout.
Overall, this film captures all the vitality one can hope for from a story mining these two mythologies for material. It’s startling at times, it looks amazing, and the narrative is consistently fascinating. The important thing is it never lags whatsoever. It’s easy to get into and it’s difficult to shake from one’s mind. The characters are all vivid, and realistic as far as such creatures go. They are precisely how one imagines Vampires and Werewolves to be if they lived in the modern world with up-to-date weapons and cell phones. It’s a timeless story that is succinctly updated and it works on just about every level. It’s a very physical film and it’s not difficult to understand the dimensions within which each creature navigates itself. Perhaps the only caveat is that there aren’t enough scenes with sexy Vampires swooping down and draining the necks of their hapless prey. Otherwise it’s a top notch horror film that delivers the goods most effectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment