Wednesday night I had time to sit down and watch the Netflix movie that had been sitting on our DVD player since late August (possibly we are not getting our money’s worth) – Underworld. I hadn’t been expecting much, and N was not interested, which is why I finally got around to watching it – he had gone back to work so I had control of the remote.
I really enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would. I’m thinking that maybe I need to get into this whole Twilight phenomenon after all, as it seems I have a thing for vampire stories.
First of all, I like Kate Beckinsale a lot. I liked her in Van Helsing (if you ignore the phony Transylvanian accent, that is), and she was great in this one too. I remember reading something about her awhile back – I can’t recall if it was a review or a just user comment on IMDb – that said she is too matronly to be convincing in an action role. Um, what? She’s gorgeous, has a great body and can seriously kick some ass. “Matronly” is not really what comes to mind. On a semi-related note, I love the name Selene. Too bad we’re not having any more kids.
Am I the only one that thinks living in a huge gothic mansion as part of a vampire coven would be kind of cool? Yes? Okay then. But anyway, there was that aspect.
Partway through the movie, it occurred to me that the elder vampire, Viktor (incidentally, a name I favored if Miss T had been a boy, trust me when I say that it goes well with our very ethnic last name), sounded an awful lot like Davy Jones. Well, what you do you know – my first ever movie star-ID-by-voice! This may mean that I watch too many movies.
The story never explicitly reveals where the action is taking place, although I was able to ascertain early on that it was somewhere in Eastern Europe (it was filmed in Budapest). The city shots were very cool, I am fascinated by that part of the world anyway (my family heritage is Yugoslavian, N’s is Czech), and the fact that the movie took place entirely at night added quite a romantic mystique. Awesome. Now I want to go there.
The plot is fairly predictable, I guess, but the ending has a bit of a twist. I do take exception to the summary on the Netflix sleeve it came in, calling it the “Romeo and Juliet of Vampires and Werewolves” (or something like that). That is just stupid, in addition to not being the major plot point.
A small detail I enjoyed – the fact that portions shot from the werewolves’ point of view were blurred and distorted in the same fashion that they were in Van Helsing. As if we really know how werewolves see! OOOOH. Maybe we DO.
Overall, an enjoyable movie. Worth the watch if you like A) vampires; B) werewolves; C) action; D) Kate Beckinsale; or E) all of the above. I approve, and will now take my leave so that I may add Underworld: Evolution to my Netflix queue.
*Reviewing While Intoxicated
