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Dom Robinson reviews

Underworld: Special Extended Edition

An immortal battle for supremacy.

Distributed by

Entertainment in Video

At the beginning of Underworld, Selene (Kate Beckinsale, shown on the right in her movie form and below-right as she looks in the real world) declares, "I am a Death Dealer - sworn to destroy those known as the Lycans. Our war has raged for centuries, unseen by human eyes, but all that is about to change".

No, despite many of the movie tie-ins out there, this isn't a big-screen version of the classic 1980s ZX Spectrum game (although that was called 'Underwurlde') but an action-adventure about the vampires versus the werewolves.

So, as each day passes, Selene and her clan are out to spot those who are of a wolf-like persuasion deep down and fill them full of lead. Well, normal bullets won't suffice for obvious reasons so at some point an element of silver has to be introduced into the proceedings so that they die a complete death, never to return... ever. Since if they do there's going to be even more trouble. And as an early scene shows where, they go after one impersonating a huge black man, Raze (Kevin Grevioux), all hell breaks loose and members of the public dive for cover in an underground tube station and on the tube itself.

This sets a tone for the story which the movie then fails to live up to. We learn that there's angst between Lycan leader, Lucian (Michael Sheen) and deputy Vampire leader Kraven (Shane Brolly), the latter's boss, Viktor (Bill Nighy), lying in a not-quite-dead-just-entombed-without-blood style waiting for the day when he's awakened, seeming to have left Kraven in charge for the time being, despite the protestations of Selene who thinks he's pretty useless and isn't fighting for the vampire cause like a leader should be. At this point, she wakes Bill Nighy up a century ahead of his time, which isn't the best idea she's had all day as we soon learn, but she's a desperate girl in a desperate situation.

Also thrown into the mix is Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), a normal human who gets accidentally entwined in the war when he's attacked by Lucian and despite getting a stirring for Selene, who reciprocates, it's a real bummer that he's been bitten by a Lycan. At the same time, the Lycans are attempting to create a creature that's half-Vampire and half-Lycan which would become more powerful than the two combined, but it's no good Selene tucking in to him now she's developed an attraction as that'll either kill him or make him strong enough to wipe out her race. Meanwhile, Sophia Myles sits in the background being catty to Selene, talking to others in a sullen fashion and then being nice to them later. Not really the most developed of characters.

Like I said, the story fails to live up to expectations because it really drags as in-fighting reigns within the Vampire clan and, despite the good first and last 30 mins, it's the hour inbetween where there's too much driving around between the same locations and hammering home of the same conversations between characters, filling in other characters of what's been said between them along the way, which we could quite easily have surmised anyway.

I also expected more SFX from this, given that the start has plenty of action and clever use of CGI, but this soon descends into thumping music in the background as the camera follows goodies and baddies stomping around in big coats and rubber suits.

The sequel, Underworld: Evolution, is out at cinemas in January 2006 and I'll take a look at the DVD when it comes out but I hope they learn from their mistakes with this and I'll be sure to check out the shorter version next time.

Oh, and for those interested in celebrity lovelives, Kate Beckinsale has a daughter following her relationship with Michael Sheen (Lucian), but after making this movie she dumped him and married its director.

The picture and sound are superb. There's not a single glitch to be found on the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image, which seems to be film in a process similar to Super 35 as the 16:9 and 4:3 clips on many of the extras show extra screen height top and bottom with little or no cropping for non-CGI scenes. Soundwise, there's both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options, so I opted for the latter and there's scores of chances to excel with it, as well as so much deep bass to be heard and rumbled across the floor of your room. That's one of the biggest joys to be found.

On disc one the only extra is an Audio commentary from Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman and director/writer Len Wiseman. On disc 2 appears a menu in rich, red colour, emulating the appearance of Viktor's tomb, and is divided into four sections, totalling almost 2½ hours:

    Creating Underworld: This section is presented in 4:3, with film clips mixing between 4:3 and the original 2.35:1, and features various crew members, including the director, talking about Underworld's creation. In Designing Underworld (11 mins), we're shown how they brought the city within the movie to life from the mansion to the sarcophagus which houses Viktor, plus the creatures and costumers. In Look of Underworld (19 mins), the director tells us how he wanted to make "a living, breathing graphic novel" and expands on that.

    The Making Of Underworld (13 mins) goes more for the kind of thing you'd get inbetween CD:UK and some other ITV Saturday output as a heavy metal soundtrack runs in the background while soundbites from key cast and crew members are dropped over the top with film clips also mixed in. There's nothing you won't expect here. Finally, here, are five Storyboard Comparisons (6½ mins), so all running rather brief, taking in the opening segment, an encounter with Lucian, the resurrection of Viktor, one of Kate's disappointingly-few action sequences and the result of the final fight sequence.

    Behind The Scenes: Five sections here, starting with Outtakes (3½ mins), which does exactly what it says on the tin and has a great selection of clips; Visual Effects of Underworld (10 mins) goes into detail about such things, even though in the middle hour any such things are fairly samey so don't feel as impressive so often; then three featurettes about Creature Effects (12½ mins), Stunts (12 mins) and Sight & Sounds (9 mins), which are all self-explanatory.

    Promos: This section's a shorter affair with two 30-second TV Spots in 2.35:1 widescreen letterbox format and a music video that runs almost 3 mins by Finch, "Worms of the Earth". Raucous.

    Fang Vs. Fiction Documentary: And the final section, a documentary in five parts if you want to know more about all the nonsense depicted within Underworld and whether it might actually be true, including one bloke who thinks he is a werewolf and others who want to be vampires (when they actually need medical help. It's presented in 4:3, with film clips in 16:9, and runs for 47 mins, although why they couldn't just run it as one piece and chapter it properly is anyone's guess.

The DVD menus on both discs have subtle animation with some great DD5.1 sound, there are 24 chapters to the film and the subtitles are in English only. If you enjoyed the movie then you'll want to find out much more about it and this disc will certainly provide.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2006.

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