If Kindred: The Embraced is the Storyteller universe transferred to television, Underworld is the Storyteller universe transferred to the big screen with the serial numbers filed off. Vampires and werewolves at war with a extra helping of melodrama, all taking place under the veneer of the modern world. Unfortunately, taking that universe to the silver screen didn’t work out much better than the small screen.
This movie was portrayed as an action-adventure with “romance” as the plot motivator. It has enough action to qualify without a doubt, but it’s relatively uninspired action. The romance angle is so thin as to be meaningless; the characters supposedly “in love” are willing to buck their entire supernatural society after spending little more than a few hours together. Watching it, I struggled to retain my suspension of disbelief and ultimately failed.
That said, it does have good moments. If your goal is to pass two hours of your life in a way that you probably won’t remember a year later, you could do worse than spending those hours watching this movie. The special effects are well done, and it’s clear the production team spent a lot of time saying, “Wouldn’t it look cool if…”
And yes, it does look cool. By that measure the movie is an unqualified success, and managed to get 2 sequels and a prequel.
Highly recommend for fans of vampires and werewolves.
Underworld: Evolution is the sequel.
