Underworld (Special Edition) on DVD

Description

Underworld is a hybrid thriller that rewrites the rulebook on werewolves and vampires--imagine Blade meets The Crow and The Matrix. It's a "cuisinart" movie--blend a lot of familiar ideas and hope something interesting happens--in which immortal vampire "death dealers" wage an ancient war against "Lycans", who've got centuries of revenge--and some rather ambitious genetic experiments--on their lycanthropic agenda. Given his preoccupation with gloomy architecture, frenetic mayhem and Gothic costuming, it's no surprise that first-time director Len Wiseman gained experience in TV commercials and the art departments of Godzilla, Men in Black and Independence Day. His work is all surface, no substance, filled with derivative, grand-scale action as conflicted vampire Selene struggles to rescue an ill-fated human from Lycan transformation. It's great looking all the way, and a guaranteed treat for horror buffs, who will eagerly dissect its many strengths and weaknesses. Len Wiseman's directorial debut sees vampires battle with werewolves. Two underground communities, the sophisticated Death Dealers (vampires), and the feral Lycans (werewolves), have been battling for supremacy and hidden from the mortal world for centuries. That is until one night when one of their battles is witnessed by a young doctor, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman). When a leading member of the Death Dealers, Selene (Kate Beckinsale), discovers a Lycan plot to kill the doctor she decides to follow him. But the more Selene follows him the more attracted to the man she becomes, and is convinced that the Lycan's are planning a major attack. When Corvin is attacked by a Lycan and becomes a werewolf, and a sworn enemy of her race, Selene finds herself in a dilemma.