Underworld: Underwrought

Underworld

Underworld, released in 2003, offers audiences a heady mix of preternatural action and stunning visuals.  The use of practical effects and the stylish cinematography add verisimilitude to the narrative, making the ancient war between vampires and werewolves seem plausible.

And the Gothic cityscape of the film’s unnamed location becomes almost as much of a character as the deuteragonists – in some ways, even more so.

But we’ll get to that.

The visuals elevate Underworld above the standard action fare, plunging audiences into a well-realized dark world.

You’ll note I did not call it a “World of Darkness.”

We have it on good authority that would be bad.

Underworld - Dark Procession
Image by Penny-Arcade

While “Underworld” thrills with its visual mastery, it stumbles when it comes to the character of Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale. Selene is portrayed as an immensely powerful Death Dealer with unparalleled fighting skills. They are not even paralleled by the werewolf – I refuse to say “Lycan” because it sounds like I’m talking about tree slime – who’s been her kind’s bane for centuries, the ancient vampire who’s said to be among the three most powerful in existence, or the prophesied hybrid whose emergence drives the whole plot.

Selene’s inexplicable, unearned combat prowess reveals her as a Mary Sue: a character whose flawless abilities leave so few genuine challenges as to make everyone else irrelevant.

Writers’ pets don’t get more obvious than this.

Selene could have benefited from more vulnerability and humanizing elements. That should be “real” humanizing elements. She’s given a tragic origin story that does get us on her side, only to find out in Act III that her past is a lie. What’s more, the story would have benefitted from just making her the hero of prophecy instead of a false Obi-Wan who at first guides the hero, only to take the wheel from him and finish the quest herself.

This usurpation of the chosen one’s role has serious ramifications for …

Michael Corvin, portrayed by Scott Speedman. Despite being a central figure in the plot, Michael’s impact on the narrative is underwhelming. Throughout the film, Michael is thrust into the brutal conflict between vampires and werewolves, yet his character development remains stagnant. After a decent introduction, during which he braves the crossfire of a subway shootout to aid an innocent gunshot victim,  he’s relegated to a living MacGuffin that’s just there to move the plot forward.

To make Michael’s character shine, a deeper exploration of his motivations and how they meshed with the secret world would have been beneficial. On the plot level, letting him defeat Bill Nighy’s Viktor the elder vampire, with Selene giving him the assist, would have elevated his role from a mere pawn to a pivotal and memorable player.

It’s a shame, because the film makers had some decent material for what could have been a solid horror-romance. Selene and Michael have good chemistry, and their relationship evolves from indifference to enmity to uneasy alliance to mutual respect to love in a plausible manner.

As it stands, Selene’s near-invincibility and Michael’s essential nonentity status hinder the audience’s full emotional investment in the central characters.

Another area in which Underworld is a a bit uneven is its world building. At first glance, the film presents a complex parallel society with vampires and werewolves locked in an age-old feud. The filmmakers hint at a rich tapestry of ancient feuds that underlies the plot. But the more you think about these elements, the more holes show up. Werewolves’ abilities and limitations are explained pretty well, but the vampires could have used more exposition. They’re actually said to be scientific, not paranormal, as evidenced by UV rays alone burning them. Yet they can regenerate from a mummified, death like state after centuries in torpor. So are they undead? Do they have to breathe (Selene sure seems to)? Must they subsist only on blood, or can they consume other food?

And more to the point, what’s the extent of their powers? This point in particular seems to have been kept vague to hand wave Selene eclipsing fellow monsters who’re said to outclass her.

In a similar imbalance, the werewolf packs’ internal dynamics are pretty straightforward, whereas the vampires’ hierarchy looks like a condensed version of White Wolf’s clan system with the serial numbers filed off.

Despite these missteps, Underworld remains an enjoyable movie that blends action, horror, and fantasy elements to create a unique and entertaining secondary world. Its setting isn’t as fleshed out as Dark City‘s, and its vampire lore isn’t quite as robust as the first Blade‘s. But with its stylish visuals and thrilling combat sequences, Underworld makes a noteworthy entry in its subgenre, even if its character development could have been more finely honed. It does an OK job of handling themes like revenge, abuse of power, and conflicting loyalties. Those themes would have been served even better if they’d played Selene’s back story straight and skipped the third act’s retroactive plot twist.

Overall, Underworld feels like a missed opportunity – or rather an incompletely leveraged one.  It’s a visually arresting action film that takes a good stab at resolving the early aughts technical crisis that The Matrix visited on the genre. But flawed character development impeded its full potential.

Underworld  still makes the cut as a must-have for every action-horror fan’s collection, if only as a prime artifact of a transitional stage in post-Ground Zero cinema. But it also serves as a reminder that even the most visually engrossing films need consistent, well-motivated characters facing real challenges to stand the test of time.

Verdict: Get a used DVD copy for completion’s sake. Throw it on as a backdrop while you’re painting minis, drawing urban fantasy concept art, or shitposting on Twitter.

 

And for an action-packed supernatural adventure with deep characters and deeper chills, read my acclaimed SFF series:

Nethereal

1 Comment

  1. Sergeant Slim Jim

    I enjoyed “Underworld” for what it was, an acceptable action film with excellent atmosphere. You already pointed out the flaws and they are plentiful, but I didn’t mind them when I first saw the film. It could be that as a young, single man I was distracted by Kate Beckinsale’s skintight body suit, but I think there’s something else in this film that made me overlook its problems. It’s pacing is above average, especially for a throwaway action film that shouldn’t have spawned a franchise. The film never spent much time on exposition, offering explanations only in snippets and usually after a big reveal, like the hibernating Viktor coming back. Those scenes were properly built up, too, so they felt like payoff, and the exposition let viewers come back down after the big event.

    You’re right that Scott Speedman’s character should have killed the bad guy. It would have made him matter more. Too bad the sequel made his character even more superfluous.

    Still, not bad.

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