Underworld Review

It's a wonder no-one ever thought of it before. Take one of the oldest tales of all, "Romeo and Juliet," plonk it slap bang in a Buffy-style universe of vampire and werewolves and watch the audience come. Or so the makers behind "Underworld" hope. It's the tale of Kate Beckinsale's Vampire warrior Selene who spends her immortality ruthlessly rubbing out her race's sworn enemy, the brutal Lycans (werewolves to you and me), against whom the vampires have been waging war for two centuries. But then the gun-toting, leather-clad lass finds out the furry fiends are tracking down a defenceless - and rather handsome - human doctor (Scott Speedman) and speeds to his side only to see him bitten by the werewolf's leader and thereby transformed into her worst enemy. And as if that first date wasn't bad enough, the poor girl then discovers that her new man is also the key to a secret plot to create an invincible species of predator that might tip the centuries-long battle in the werewolves' favour. Opposites attract indeed.

All murky, rain-drenched streets and enormous full moons, "Underworld" certainly looks beautifully dark from the very first reel and hardly lets up on the gloom throughout. Beckinsale meanwhile successfully banishes her period costume past care of an ever-present sexy scowl and a series of obscenely tight PVC catsuits. But try as she might to outdo "The Matrix's" Carrie Ann-Moss in the action girl stakes, Beckinsale has to battle both werewolves and a seriously convoluted plot which starts off as mysterious but soon becomes baffling. And as entertaining as Bill Nighy is as a camp Vampire elder, the film only really gets the audience's blood flowing in its fitful action sequences. Not as clever as the original "Matrix" nor cheerfully bloody as "Blade," it's a strangely toothless affair.