Director: Mans Marlind, Bjorn Stein
Starring: Kate Beckinsale. Sandrine Holt, Theo James, Michael Ealy, India Eisley, Stephen Rea
"I heal instantly."
I am a huge fan of the Underworld franchise. Give me a movie with a butt-kicking female lead [Aeon Flux, Resident Evil, Buffy the Vampire Slayer] and I will be there. It helps, of course, that Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous and a fantastic actress.
I know that a lot of people would watch this movie and not like it. They would say that is is too contrived and does not have enough plot. Other people might say that there is not enough Action [and they would be very, very wrong about that]. It is true that the plot is not super strong and some of the dialogue leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but this is supposed to be an action movie, and the actual plot of the movie is different enough to make up for all of the flaws.
The story I Am Legend has been made into a movie one 3 separate occasions, and from what I can tell, not one of those adaptations got the story right. The true story is that of the infected who survive and are seeing fighting our hero [Will Smith in the most recent version] are actually terrified of the Human Hero. He is the monster of their legends [I Am Legend] and from their side of the story, he is the bad guy. Besides District 9, we don't really see the "Mass Cleansing" stories from the side of the people being "Cleansed". Even in the Escape from [City] movies and Doomsday, we see our hero's view of the people, not their view. That's what makes this movie so different.
At the beginning of the movie, we find out that the Humans had discovered the existence of the Lycan and Vampyre clans and they set out to exterminate them. I understand why the Humans would do that ... we have all seen Zombie movies, Vampire movies, Werewolf movies ... you either fall in love with them or you start killing them en masse before they kill you. That's the point here. In the other movies we see that occasionally a human will get caught in the crossfire between the Lycans and the Vampyres, but not very often. The Vampyres exist on cloned blood and they do not hunt Humans for food. The Lycans ... well ... especially the ones hanging out in the sewer might occasionally snack on a homeless person, but again, probably not very often. That is what was key to their species existing along with the Humans. Discretion.
If you have seen the other Underworld movies and are familiar with the mythology, you know these characters, understand them, and feel for them. When we see Selene being chased by the Human Police and taking them down, we are cheering for her. She is not the bad guy by any stretch of the imagination, which make the totalitarianism of the Humans absolutely ridiculous.
Okay, enough ranting.
To Sum Up: Fantastic Action Movie with lots of blood and guts and crazy killings. There is also a political message that maybe is only apparent to me, but it makes me feel better if such an Action-packed delight also has some poignancy.
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