UNDERWORLD

Like goth? Like monsters? Like comic books? Like movies? Well, here's a movie that's all for you, bringing all these things together in one package.

Selene (Kate Beckinsale of PEARL HARBOR) is a vampire warrior, a "death dealer" assigned to protect a vampire high society that's been hiding inside human civilization for hundreds of years. What the vampires need protection from is their arch enemies, a legion of werewolves everyone calls Lycans, probably because it sounds a bit cooler than werewolf. While on a mission, she learns that the Lycans are after a human named Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), and without really knowing why he's so important, decides to save him. This doesn't sit well with Selene's boss Kraven (Shane Brolly), who rightly suspects that his enforcer might be softening for her hunky captive. However, Selene comes to suspect that Kraven has another motive that he's secretly in cahoots with Lycan leader Lucian (Michael Sheen of TIMELINE). After discovering this betrayal, Selene awakens king vampire Viktor (Bill Nighy) to spill the beans, but finds that... well, I won't spoil it all here, but the plot has more double-crosses than a tic-tac-toe championship.

Partway through their commentrak, writer/director Len Wiseman and his co-writer/actor Kevin Grevioux (the man with the deepest voice in the world) reveal that early drafts of their story were built around Corvin as the central character, but feel that the project came together when they decided to put Selene in the spotlight. I have to disagree. What's missing in UNDERWORLD is perspective all we really see is a scary monster world full of scary monster characters. There's no sense of an "underworld" since we're never shown a mundane world, with a legion of monsters hidden beneath it. These guys do a good job of explaining the creative thought that went into their creation (Wiseman's directorial debut), telling lots of rags-to-riches stories about the years of sweat and planning, but if UNDERWORLD has a flaw, it's that it's too inside, too much a film for "the geeks" to have broad appeal. That said, wouldn't it have been cool to have a bunch of zombies in there, too?

Another perceived flaw has to do with the film's excellent action sequences. It's actually much more of an action movie than a horror movie, but jaded audiences see characters in latex costumes jumping around shooting at each other and immediately think of THE MATRIX. What's really happening is that now that comic book fans are making movies, and have the technology to pull it off, they're making movies with comic book action in them. With the MATRIX trilogy the best known and most successful example of this, comparison is unavoidable, and it's become much more difficult to come up with action sequences that have a distinct feel. Or I could be wrong, and these guys just totally ripped off Neo and company.

The film has an incredible look to it, with terrific costumes, sets and f/x (why is there a cropped edition?), and a rich soundtrack. All of this is the focus of the second commentrak with creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos (GODZILLA), producer/visual f/x supervisor James McQuaide, and sound supervisor Claude Letessier (MOTHMAN PROPHECIES). These three don't have so much to say, and occasionally pause to watch the show. But their work speaks for itself anyway.

Wisely, the DVD doesn't get out of hand with detailing every single aspect of the film to the point that not even those directly involved could avoid getting tired of it. Besides, most of what needs to be said gets into the commentraks, and it's left to the rest of the supplements mainly the Making-Of featurettes that can be played separately or as one long piece to show what's different about this picture. After all, behind-the-scenes featurettes on f/x movies as varied as BLADE or LORD OF THE RINGS can easily become interchangeable. The section devoted to stunts and f/x are the most enjoyable, with a montage of the movie making fun and on set antics edited into an extended piece, accompanied by some of the better soundtrack music. The disc is rounded out by the UNDERWORLD trailer, and ads for five other Columbia TriStar horror features.