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Massawyrm kinda likes UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS, even though it tried hard to convince him otherwise!!!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
To say that Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is a GOOD movie would be a misstatement. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. It is not a very good movie at all, actually. What would be true however is to say that I kind of liked it anyway. Despite itself. You see, I loathe the previous Underworld films. It is a series that borrows HEAVILY from other works and gives absolutely nothing back to the mythos or the genre. What neat ideas it has were stolen whole heartedly from the White Wolf series of games The World of Darkness without seeming to understand for a minute what any of it was about. The movies slapped “vampires” and “werewolves” together like an 8 year old slamming two GI Joes in their backyard – but it never once felt like either a vampire or a werewolf film.
They are comic book movies. And bad ones at that.
The Vampires were merely really pretension, power hungry assholes who could jump off of buildings REEEEEEEAAAAAALLLLLYYYYY SLLLLLlllooooooowwww and hang out on the ceiling and the werewolves were bare chested euro-trash who would occasionally turn big and furry. And while the second film tried desperately to repair the ills of the first film, neither possessed a plot that was even remotely interesting. But this film, the third in the series, is actually so radically different from the first two that it is easy to detach yourself from your dislike of them and see it as its own, distinct beast.
First, and most important to the film, is that Len Wiseman didn’t direct it. And while director Patrick Tatopoulos seems to be trying desperately to ape Wiseman’s soulless, listless style – he can’t. And soul shows through. This film, while looking as drab and dismal as the previous efforts, actually has a beating heart that lets you care about its characters and situations…for the most part. Secondly, this is a prequel, populated by returning minor characters or villains. Normally this kind of thing bugs the shit out of me, except that the two major players returning for the film are Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy. Finally, it takes place in the dark ages – making this less a modern horror superhero film and more of a low rent fantasy film. And all of these elements work together in one way or another to improve the series beyond the limitations of its predecessors.
While the film isn’t really anything very new or original, setting this story in a castle what appears to be almost a millennia ago really works. It’s a cheap, easy fantasy film with the vampiric powers and curse of lycanthropy taking the place of magic. And what feels terribly out of place in our world isn’t so out of place in a medieval setting. There’s still the same problem of almost every being appearing in the films actually being either supernatural with not a normal person in sight (most of the time) but in an era where it was very easy to be isolated and shroud yourself in mystery, it becomes a tad bid less obnoxious.
But the film rests almost entirely upon the shoulders of Rhona Mitra, Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy, all of whom are incredibly talented and work very well together. Each of these folks are more than capable of handling the cheesy, often pompous dialog given them and turning it into something believable. And while I will never say it is emotionally gripping enough to pull you all the way in, it is enough to keep your interest despite the glaring, occasionally distracting flaws with the film.
The film’s biggest crutch is its adherence to the look of Len Wiseman’s style-over-substance approach to parts 1 and 2. Almost every color in this film is ridiculously some shade of blue. Drenched in some unnatural form of permanent twilight, the blues get really old really quick. Add to that the stunningly awful cinematography that consists of switching between close ups and medium shots, and you end up with a dull claustrophobic palate that never lets you really look at any one thing long enough to make out what it is. This unfortunately carries over to the action scenes, many of which become confusing cluster fucks of editing that seem to be trying to conceal either too low a budget or the lack of training on the part of the combatants. This isn’t that quick cut JASON BOURNE style of fight. This is that made for television “kung fu without actually knowing kung fu” style.
But it’s the story that keeps letting you get past all that. Essentially it is the origin of the Lycans as a free race. Lucian (Michael Sheen) is the most gifted and the talented of the slave race lycans and the personal favorite and protector of the eldest vampire, Viktor (Bill Nighy.) However, Viktor’s daughter (Rhona Mitra) is in love with the cursed being. Lucian slowly gains followers working as a slave, finally has enough of the vampires shit and decides to revolt, becoming the Spartacus/William Wallace/Maximus of the werewolves. That builds to a giant third act fight which is actually pretty cool, with hordes of werewolves swarming a castle full of vampires.
While it is still not much of a vampire movie, the elements they introduce work very well as cheesy fantasy and can easily be enjoyed on that level. It reminded me of scads of 80’s fantasy films that I loved as a kid and enjoy for their camp value now. High art this isn’t, but the high grade actors spin gold out of shit and make what I consider to be easily the most enjoyable of a fairly miserable series. I in no way truly endorse seeing this, as the flaws it has are pretty rough and are only modestly trumped by what the movie has going for it – but if you’re a fan of the series or have relations with someone who is, then you could do a lot worse right now that seeing this. There’s even a great flashback (forward) to the first film, tying this entire film into that one, a scene I think fans will really dig the shit out of.
I’ll give the creators credit for one thing – their mythology seems to hold up. They went back to the previous stories and show us things that were only mentioned previously. Then they wrap it all back around, encouraging you to revisit the previous films for a better understanding of them. I have a strong inclination that I won’t be doing that any time soon. But fans might, and they might be getting more out of it. It would appear they’ve made a movie that improves the series, however slight that improvement might be. And that’s something.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.
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...or does it!
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still haven't seen any of these, and probably never will.
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guess i'll be a minority here by saying i really liked the first two so this one's an easy decision. that flashforward idea sounds interesting, it must involve the little story i read bout Kate Beckinsale making some sorta appearance. neat.
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Nope me neither... always kinda curious to see them (mostly to witness how hot Kate Beckinsale looks in a catsuit) but the medieval setting makes this third one actually sound quite interesting (for a Blu Ray rental at least).
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...come to think of it I think I'm a sucker for cool chicks in bad movies.....it's sort of a Meta-damsel in Distress sort of situation. In this case the "distress" being the bad movie they're in......and if they are cool enough to make me like the movie a little then I've "saved them". Or they've saved themselves...or something. I'm getting back to work.
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...but it sure smells good!
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This is the original Tomb Raider model were talking about? The one main contribution to Hollow Man was to scream a lot and get raped? Admititly, that was a greater contribution than Paul Verhoven made to the movie but to include her a trio of talent with Sheen and Nighy in it seems a reach of imagination.
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i could pretty much watch her eat a bowl of cereal, do laundry, pick scabs, take out the trash, pretty much anything mundane. but i don't know if i can handle all the blue in this movie.
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and hated it. I can't imagine wanting to see the others. I don't know if I'm more shocked that they keep making these crap films or that people keep going to see them.
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is that you already know how things will turn out(see star wars).And if it's any good or better than the original(unlike star wars),how do you make a sequel of it.
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athlete and fighter. Her battle with a fully-armored-and-mace-carrying knight, with her wearing nothing more than a Danceskin, was the shining moment of Doomsday. Kate's pretty, but Rhona is built for combat.
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oops
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NEVER a good sign. Avoid it, please. Don't encourage this type of filmmaking. If you have a small budget, go Dogma 95 and film people pretending to be retarded and having sex at candlelight.
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We've had Vampires vs Werewolves... I wonder how those Vampires would handle Medusae? Or an army of leprous gnomes? That would be something to see. Leprous gnomes.
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The first two were just so stunningly, soul-crushingly insulting, predictable, and just... tepid gloomy soulless awful crap. I virtually NEVER leave a movie halfway through, but I actually walked out of the room at the end (near the supposed climax) of # 2 and had no inclination whatsoever to return. Not even the mildest possible curiosity.
Even my deep and abiding love of Bill Nighy isnt enough to lure me back now... maybe I'll see it at a friends if I'm too drunk to go somewhere else... but jeez. Even a mild improvement wouldn't put thus series anywhere near watchable as far as I'm concerned. -
Seeing Mitra or Beckinsale in black fetish wear is all I need from this series, can't watch them though, they suck too bad but looking at stills, ahh, the stills
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'Rhona Mitra'..it just sounds like a vintage hand-made italian sportscar.
'yes, hi, I drive a 1976 Rhona Mitra.' -
i cant take any more.
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Viewing it with that perspective, he's right.
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Rhona Mitra incredibly talented?? - if by that you mean, she got great tits then you're correct....and even they're fake.
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Made the first two movies watchable. Not so sure about this one.
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But I still wont see this movie based on the shiteness of the first two.
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Yeah, I'm that kind of movie watcher. Oh and zinc_chameleon - I love the last line of your post: "Rhona is built for combat". LOL.
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sex with both Kate and Rhona multiple times (at least a 1000 each) to decide who I like better. I'll just take them both to be safe.
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i hope that song is in it, it totally made the first 2i'm gonna see this movie this weekend, cause i like the first 2 and there nothing really else to see(TDK isn't being re-released in my town and i'm not a fag so i'm gonna go see slumdog millionaire)
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Rhona Mitra is a beautiful woman, but here she's shot with such unflattering lighting and odd angles that half the time she looked like John Cena in a wig.
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Why is it that shit like Underworld and god help us Resident Evil can get an infinite amount of sequels, yet established, respected artists like Del Toro (Guillermo, not Benicio) can barely find funds to work on their own actually decent franchies? And guys like Don Corscarelli are going begging in the streets? Its not like these Underworld pics are cheap or even make bank. I just don't understand it. How do they get the funds to make limitless amounts of crappy action-horror franchise entries? Are they getting arts grants or something? Jeez.
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oh. what? you're still here?
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That's all that the underworld films were and all they were ever meant to be (I hope, at least - it's a bit sad if Wiseman took this stuff seriously). Everybody has got some cinematic skeletons in their closet, films that they enjoy the hell out of even while admitting that those films are, in fact, shit. The underworld films do that for a lot of people, me included.Are they great movies? Of course not! Hell, they're not even good vampire or werewolf movies, two genres that have seen more than their fair share of crap. However, they are fun, enjoyable little films with decent enough actors that you can at least pretend to take the characters seriously for 90 minutes and big enough budgets that the effects don't induce laughter or groans.I can totally understand why people wouldn't like them, but I would also bet those same people like some shit movies that I couldn't bear to watch. Each to their own.Either way, though, this is not a "cinema" movie for me, as I haven't got the money to go and watch any old shit at the cinema and reserve my precious cash for quality films. Torrent beckons...
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I mean they aren't works of art, but if you are into werewolves and vampires battling it out with a soap opera storyline and cool action, they are competently made. Way more enjoyable than anything that Stephen Sommers or Paul W.S. Anderson or Uwe Boll put out (directors that more or less put out similar genre films). Having this all go down in a Medieval setting, only hinted at in the first two, already has me sold. Actually Bill Nighy alone is worth watching these films for.
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probably right!
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ONE - that Bill Nighy is ALWAYS worth a watch and usually his prescence alone adds one star to a movie (see the risible POTC sequels) and TWO - Rhona Mitra is absolutely filthy.Kate Beckinsale in leather is undoubtedly hot, but Rhona has this vibe of being an older, dirtier sister - the one that would smoke Kate's cigs, drink her brew and shag all her boyfriends. And while I'm praising the awesome Ms. Mitra, how about - given Hollywood's love of remakes - somebody reboots the Lara Croft franchise with the REAL Lara Croft in the title role. Angelina who?
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Jan 23, 2009 12:29:45 PM CST
rather watch the 1st underworld than any of the x-men movies
by crazybubba
just sayin.
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but it sure as fuck wasn't from Rhona Mitra's acting. And god knows if she's one of the "saving graces" for this film, I'm absolutely not interested.
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The first film was incredibly uneven but I actually thought the second was a pretty decent little horror/action flick. This one looks O.K. but the whole prequel thing looks a little dull.
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I have to confess that I STILL love Krull. This article got me thinking about that movie again. I saw it as a kid back in the day and have loved it ever since. I loved Doomsday in a guilty pleasure kinda way(the gore was nice and I like Road Warrior wannabes) so I think I will have to check this one out. Matinee of course!
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Remake it and I won't be upset. Remake it poorly, and you've got problems. Shit, if Sword & The Sorcerer can get a sequel made all these years later, Krull deserves that shot, too. Remake or sequel, I don't care which.
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...I'm ready for it to be gone.
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really, i still applaud the film makers for even making movies in this genre, and rated R at that. there aren't a whole lot of these types of movies coming, so I always welcome a live action session of a whitewolf game whenever these underworld flicks come out. also, for the love of god, stop with the "it ripped this off" bullshit, just makes me want to stop reading the review. who cares if it's inspired by a whitewolf product? are THEY making any movies? no? then fuckem, why let a good idea go to waste? besides, it's not like they invented vampires and werewolves, or the concept of vampires vs werewolves, so to say someone is ripping them off is fucking ASSinine.
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that people sing the praises of the second film. That was one of the worst pieces of shit I've seen in a long time. I actually preferred the first one, (itself decidedly average at best), by far over its absurd sequel.
I'll probably rent the 3rd on netflix... though, because it IS a prequel, and we were basically already told what happened in it, I can't see how the story is going to be much of a draw.
Rhona Mitra was the ONLY good thing about Doomsday... but I'm not talking about her acting skills. -
Sure Doomsday was contrived crap that borrowed way too heavily from Carpenter and Miller films...BUT it was still a trashy guilty pleasure (if for no other reason than to see Mitra fighting Scottish cannibal neo-punks driving shitty old cars which could apparently all drive as fast as a Bentley).
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You ripped off your name from a far superior game.
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Yeah, but you still would, wouldn't you?
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...Rhona Mitra tries to make peace by instigating a rollicking Vampire/Werewolf song and dance number entitled, "Oh, The Vampire and The Werewolf Should Be Friends"!
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to complain about a low-budget fantasy-horror film ripping of the idea of werewolves fighting vampires from a totally obscure pen and paper role playing game.
I think you may be our new king, Massa.... -
Isn't there a movie being made? Anyway, I've never seen any of the Underworld movies nor do I intend to. All i can think of is shades of blue and black, which I gather from the trailers. I was mildly interested in seeing Doomsday though, the trailers looked cool. But I know how that can turn out.
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HEY!
It was a crappy live action game, too, dammit! :)
And it's really not that obscure. Any gamer over the age of 20 has probably heard of at least one of the White Wolf games in the World of Darkness series. Hell, half my college still plays 'em *shrugs*. -
trashing of My Bloody Valentine to lighten up on movies youre not suppose to take so seriously.
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They're HORRIBLE and this is coming from a hardcore horror movie fan. The first movie is beyond bad...Kate Beckinsale almost drowned in it! You're a vampire!! YOU CAN'T DROWN!
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Seriously, the setting of this movie doesn't resemble any "good" vampire movie that I've seen except maybe the Coppola Dracula. Probably it most resembles Bloodrayne (ugh!). So long as humans aren't really important to the stories, these movies cannot really access most of what has defined vampire movies--namely the fear of and attraction to forbidden power. It's really too bad they've claimed the name "Lycans" for werewolves. That's still the only interesting contribution the series has made to the monster/werewolf genre and, big surprise, it's a purely superficial thing. I wonder if someone will remake this sucker in 20 years.
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like people care what I meant.
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...it features at least 45 minutes of Rhona's exposed breasts. Hell if that was so I'd probably be solely responsible for keeping it in theaters for 9 months.
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Good actress, beautiful woman, great boobs
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...are like the teenager who sat a few rows up from us in Cloverfield gasping loudly 'no fucking way'. It's the chest-bumpingly-fat-kid easily amused tragic retards...Hollywood thinks theyre a cash cow..more like dumb sheep
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“This isn’t that quick cut JASON BOURNE style of fight. This is that made for television “kung fu without actually knowing kung fu” style.”
–Uh *Newsflash JASON BOURNE (#2 and 3 under Green ass) WAS ALSO “Made for television kung fu without actually knowing kung fu style.”
The fsrt Bourn film had good choreography. The Greengrass films may have had ‘some”story plusses, but from a choreography standpoint were grade D hack hyper edit garbage.
If the they actually even HIRED a choreographer later Bourne films it was not evident because the hyper zoom-cut- fast pan left- fast pan right-zoom in-zoom out-cut- cut-cut crap hid anything REMOTELY of value that was actually shot (probably because it wasn’t shot). Thes action in these films was so bad it would have been funny – especially in #2 if I hadn’t wasted money and paid to watch it
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Yet another special effect guy getting a directing gig..Hey, Cameron started out in effects, and I believe so did Fincher...
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if only for being the missing link between Anne Rice vampires and the sparkly twats of Twilight. toothless, whiny, petty pieces of shit to the last man(especially Nighy's character, but it's still Bill fuckmothering Nighy, so he gets a pass). the second was mildly enjoyable if only for the fact that it brutally slaughtered all these fucks within the first twenty minutes before sliding straight into crushing mediocrity even by guilty pleasure standards. this one might get me out to the dollar theater if i get particularly bored in the next few weeks.
and as for warcraft, fuck off. the reason we get pissed that it bloodily ripped the limbs off WoD and beat it to death with them is quite simple:
1)if you've ever played a good run of Vampire or Werewolf, you're thinking how much better your story was than this tripe.
2) if you've ever GM'd a good run on Vampire or Werewolf, you're thinking about all the time and effort you put into entertaining a few friends for an evening for free. then you're wondering how the fuck an alleged professional is getting paid to fuck something up that you do better on a weekly basis for zero monetary gain. -
And I feel asleep, and I wasn't drunk and I wasn't even tired.
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What's less obscure than that?
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The story can take place "in the dark ages," and it can take place "almost a millenni[um] ago," but it can't do both.
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Didn't it used to be COOL to enjoy bad films? I like Underworld, though they did suck. But guns, monsters, vampire powers, swordplay, gore, mutant hybrid supermonsters, more gore, High tech werewolf killing big-ass guns, Kate Beckinsale in a leather outfit...? You fuckers are all dead inside.
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it's a better mmo imo. also, sorry for my bit of nerdrage, i just really like these stupid underworld movies, lol...
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The second one was terrible.
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The first Underworld was Director Len Wiseman's first ever movie he'd ever shot ANYWHERE and considering he managed to get it on screen for a mere 20 million bucks, he deserves high praise! Contrary to all the bollocks about them stealing from the White Wolf series, the two are not the same at all and follow completely differnt origins to their Vampire vs Werewolf war. There are directors out thee like Lucas who spends hundreds of millions on his movies and doesn't get half the performances that Len Wiseman got out of his cast or have half the depth the Underworld delivers to its plot. There is much to admire in Underworld rather than diss it for not being another CGI over budgeted studio flick or star Vehicle. The movies homage a lot of old SFX techniques and don't rely too heavily on CGI like the average multi million flick today does. These are budget movies so for what they're worth, they are actually pretty well made and by someone who's job before writing and directing the first two films was basically as a stage hand! I'd understand the hate if it was a film made by a Lucas, Spielberg etc and it cost millions, but its quite the oppositte, hre is a film fan like us who got a chance to realize his dream and do do it with Hollywood pocket-change! Kudos to Len Wiseman as far as I'm concerned and I'll rather support the up and coming directors who deliver to their fans, however small a fanbase; than the fat cats like Lucas who sticks two fingers to you all and sells his wn baby for an easy buck!
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Exactly Right.
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That was the most clever first I've ever seen.
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the second. I won't go into the details, but I'm intrigued about seeing the third one for the sole reason that Bill Nighy is a great actor, and he just looks damn creepy in this.
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= Len Wiseman's mom, sister, wife or brother. "There are directors out the(r)e like Lucas who spends hundreds of millions on his movies and doesn't get half the performances that Len Wiseman got out of his cast or have half the depth the Underworld delivers to its plot." Okay, A) the comparison to Lucas doesn't say much and B) where was this "depth" in the first Underworld you speak of?
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But anywho...I won't be seeing this one in the theater, just as I didn't the first two. I didn't have 1 & 2, but they're so...blah. Black leather, blue filtered film, dual pistols. Ew. The best part of either of those movies was the way the baddie in #2 was killed. I think it's pretty horrible how hard they're trying to make Rhona Mitra look like Kate Beckinsale in this one. The permanently wet, short, black hair and inhuman blue eyes. Just substitute the goth corset for a stupid suit of female armor that perfectly fits her tits.
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a post-op tranny, but a tranny none the less. While I hated her on Boston Legal, I was one of the few who LOVED Doomsday. I'll see this movie even though I didn't like the first 2(I don't even remember what happened in them; that's even worse than outright hating a movie) since I'm a sucker for werewolves. I do wish Len wiseman had directed this since I was surprised by how much I loved his Live Free Or Die Hard. Hell, the guy should be a hero for comic/genre geeks. He grew up reading comics and watching sci-fi movies, but still managed to bag Kate Beckinsdale and become good friends with Danny McBride(he's the next big thing I tell you!!).
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yes, it certainly is a wonderful thing when a guy with no ideas can make something so excruciating with 20 million bucks and no experience whatsoever. Hollywood truly is the land of opportunity. Need more like him.
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Dude, I like both underworlds movies, but seriously you give any film student 20 million bucks and they could have pulled that off. Nice visuals and fairly cool, but not an ounce of genuine creativity in it and as deep as a paddling pool. It's just a cliched idea done with competence.Then again, you could argue that the whole SW saga is ripped off from a variety of sources if you wanted to, so your points about Lucas are probably fair!
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...but I also like some cheese every now and then. I thought that Underworld was passably entertaining, and I'll watch it if it ever comes to my tiny area. Can a person like both avante-gard movies and fantasy? I think so.I hate to do this, but it's warranted: Quantize, you are, IMHO, the biggest douchebag on here. You think that you know what you're talking about, yet you fail to realize that we know that you're just talking out your ass. At least the other trolls can back up their statements. If you can't be constructive at least once in a while, JUST FUCK OFF! Why are you here if you don't appreciate the films on some level? Fucking retard. Musician wanna-be.*ahem*Apologies to all the decent folks on here.
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You do realize that the "Danny McBride" who is Wiseman's co-producer/friend is NOT the same Danny R. McBride from PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and TROPIC THUNDER, right? They're two totally different people.
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I'm with you on this. UNDERWORLD is FUN trash IMHO.
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Apologies for the typo regarding your handle.
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In an interview, Wiseman said that the idea came from Kevin Grevious, the big African-American dude who plays one of the Lycans.He's the one who screams "BLOODS!" in the subway tunnel.
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No, I didn't know that. I guess I was wrong. It seemed like an odd pairing, but IMDB has Danny McBride's pictures under the R. McBride heading. Oh well, Wiseman still bagged a hot British chick.
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But the story was witten by all three guys, Wiseman, Grevioux and McBride who wrote the final screenplay too. People keep sating there's nothing original about Underworld, yet when I ask them when the last Vampire vs Werewolf movie they saw they can't answer. WhenI ask when the last werewolf vs Vampire movie that had Vampires maintaining a hierarchy over several centuries with a routine that rotates three Elders as equal leaders as well as using Werewolves as slaves; they can't answer. Show me the last horror film that had Vampires and Werwolves using high tech weaponary to fight a war in the modern age? Hell show me a film which showed that both Vampire and werewolf bloodlines originated from the same person or for that matter has a hybrid between the two as a character? If all you can point to is leather and guns an say Matrix then you're eyes are as shallow as your brains that switched off the minute the film started relaying its backstory. The movies are rich in levels of creative history, concepts designs and twisting plots. Their action scenes are superb for a budget movie and the performancs by some of the great actors they've managed to get for the production are solid. When the likes of Sir Derekk Jacobi and Bill Nighy claim they hose to do the films because the "depth" in the story being nothing like the films they've seen of this genre in the past, then who the hell missing out here? i don;t care what similar books or comics were done similar to this or whatever role playing game existed along similar lines. Nobody made a 'FILM' anything like Underworld for all the bandwagon haters to start screaming "Unoriginal"! So when Massawyrm states Underworld steals from the genre and gives nothing new, check the above, watch the movies and try to validate that statement as fact! the way people jumped on the bandwagon to hate certain movies you'd think there were a string of identical films over the years you can point to in your sleep! We should be supporting our genre not trying to destroy anything promising from taking root. You show me a film in the last 20 years that managed to get this much concept design on screen and into a story with just $20 million and I'll jump on the bandwagon willingly!
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I seriously commend your determination here, but most of this crowd aren't gonna give your arguments much truck. I can see where you're coming from and think you argue well, but i still have to disagree with you.While I do recognise the existence of elements not seen in previous vampire or werewolf films (elders, heirarchy etc), these do not to my mind constitute originality. The whole driving concept behind the film, vampires vs werewolves, is to me an inherently UNORIGINAL idea. It is simply taking two characters and throwing them at each other, in the same vein as aliens vs predator, or freddy vs jason.Any "leather and guns" comparisons to the matrix are, I think, justified, simply because the matrix - along with blade - made the idea of gun toting, leatherclad men and women appealing in the mainstream (the matrix was hardly original in that respect), so underworld's design is heavily influenced by what is currently popular. In fact, blade has already merged this design trend with a vampire movie!As for "depth", I agree that the films have a nice, detailed backstory with a few decent touches, but this in itself is not reason enough to call the films "deep". Detail and depth are nowhere near to being the same thing in storytelling terms. Pearl Harbour is a relatively detailed story, yet no one would accuse that film of having any genuine depth. Similarly Raging Bull has a fairly simple and straightforward story, but depth of character to spare.The Underworld movies have plenty of detail, but generates no real emotional attachment to even the non-immortal characters. It is also poorly written in my eyes, especially when some character says "leave us" to various lackeys THREE times in order to tell some key plot details to Kate Beckinsale. That's the real problem. Plenty of characters have important things to say about the plot, but none of it is meaningful.As for concept design within this sort of budget, that should hardly be the driving force behind appreciation of film (plot, character, emotion, dramatic tension, camera work, editing and music all must come higher, surely). Hell, Uwe Boll gets decent design work into his films! For the record, though, I would argue that any Terry Gilliam film contains just as much concept design for around the same budget and that is just a single example. Besides, fantasy in whatever guise ALWAYS needs more design work than, say, romantic comedies, or dramas.As I said, I don't dislike these films at all. I enjoy them and will watch the 3rd, albeit not in the cinema. However, I simply cannot assign to them any notions of depth or originality, as these labels to me require a higher standard that these films simply do not reach. In my mind, they are not even TRYING to reach them.
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That's the standard bearer for awesomeness
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Seriously, one of the most flat out ENTERTAINING movies I've seen in some time. I enjoyed the first Underworld for some strange reason. Thought the second was horrific. But this was just geek happiness through and through.
Vampire knights hacking off heads of werewolves whilst werewolves simultaneously rip vampire knights to pieces and storm their castle. What the HELL is not to love?
They did a great job tying up many pieces to this admittedly romance novel-esque storyline. Makes me want to revisit the first flick again, maybe even ... gasp ... purchase the DVD.
In short, I loved it. And yes, it IS a GOOD movie. -
Massawyrm, your entire posting is brought to us courtesy of the letters *F* and *U* to complain about *Underworld* borrowing from other elements. So the fuck what? Is not the Borg of *Star Trek the Next Generation* not a ripoff of the Cybermen from *Doctor Who* that appeared a good 20+ years before the Borg? What about *The Matrix*? That movie ripped off its central element from the 1976 *Doctor Who* serial "The Deadly Assassin" and they ripped it off shamelessly, not to mention ripping off most of David Goyer's superior *Dark City* yet geeks love that movie so damn much and think the Hack-O-Ski's are cinematic geniuses. And then I watch Richard Kelly's *Southland Tales* today only to discover that it rips off the Blinovitch Limitation Effect - again from *Doctor Who* - and the director cannot even admit to what property he stole from in his commentary. So to complain about *Underworld* seems a little moot to me. But most important to me is how hot Rhona Mitra is in this film. Now I haven't seen it yet but I'm hoping she is super hot and that's what I came to find out here.
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...Paul WS TUVWXY an Z Anderson!
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To the Mitra critics I raise Season 2 of *Nip/Tuck*. She did very well on that show, thank you very much.
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I sincerely hope you guys in the States are being subjected to better advertising for this. Here in the UK, they've removed the art direction apparent in the marketing of the first two films, and replaced it with visuals so lacking i'd rather look at the bus shelter than the poster...
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I saw this on Sunday, and I thought it was great! Today, I read that every critic on every website disagreed with me. Of course, they also disagreed with me on Death Race, Wanted, all the Resident Evil films, and The Matrix trilogy too.The bad news is I'll never be a film critic. The good news is - the movie industry caters to me! Yay!
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Massa's review is about dead on: not a great film...but entertaining in the way Krull and Clash of the Titans could be enjoyed (letting go and embracing the gulty pleasure).
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