beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2006-05-23 01:24 am
beccaelizabeth) wrote2006-05-23 01:24 am
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"Underworld" is kind of blah. Vampires fighting werewolves, that should be fun. But there werewolves had a whole claymation hyena thing going on, so blah. And it was so simplified. By the end of the film, she wasn't choosing between love and vengeance, which would have been cool. She was simply discovering that, wow, love and vengeance now point the same way! Been wrong for centuries! Oops.
If they'd have left it as Viktor saved her from werewolves, we would have some ambiguity, and actual choice. As it was, she got 100% pulled around by circumstance, and it was therefore very boring.
Further, the DVD I have combines my two least favourite things - no subtitles and no stereo track. 5.1 comes out wrong on my TV. My brother says something in the setup thinks I have a center speaker, so the sound balance comes out crappy. I shall correct this with new hardware I think. But for right now it means the music being louder than the talking, and random rearrangements in balance, and just annoying sound stuff.
So that was just a blah couple of hours, really.
OTOH the films rather obvious attempt to appeal to the goth aesthetic, er, really worked... I now want to coat. Really really want. Lovely black coat with that little semi-celtic pattern at the nape. Swooshy and just that bit decorative. Or Viktors version, in red and gold (except I tend more towards silver), with much more decoration. Lovely.
Bit annoying the vampires all dressing like vampires though. I kept on being snarky at the screen. Live the cliche! Go gothvamps go! :eyeroll:
Plus the way they had her dressed... Okay, I can see the appeal of latex and corsets as much as the next bi chick, but between the corset and the boots, our action heroine moved with all the grace and fluidity of a black plank. Just not sexy. Give us some movement in three dimensions! Flips are cool, yes, but flip and roll at the same time and it looks less like really obvious wire work! I mean, wire work has its place, sure, but the whole of every fight scene? Just does not work for me. I like the kind of martial arts that look like someone put in a few decades of practice and then kicked ass with good old fashioned human muscles.
Yes, I watch the wrong genre for that. I still reserve the right to complain...
Also, her hair looked bad. Looked like she needed to wash it through most of the movie, which to be fair was a realistic response to mucking around in sewers. But it also got in her face all the time. Which, okay, moody, but she's firing guns! She needs to see!
And the gun firing was a bit... I mean, they wobbled so much I'd be surprised if she hit the broad side of a barn, much less a small head sized moving target. Gun in each hand + super strength = no recoil problems, *if* you set up the fake weapons that way! Otherwise, wiggly jumpy guns where you wonder why she bothers.
Plus, there should have been a love story at the emotional heart of it all. Or *some* kind of emotional setup. Lucien was set up as the bad guy, but got all the heartbreak moments. Selene and Michael were like star crossed lovers, except for the part where they weren't lovers, and she only just met him, and didn't seem to like him very much. Except for the trying to save his life thing. I mean, there was a real obvious missing conversation, or bit of acting, or *something* that would tell us why she did it. Because, yes, I see teh pretty, but you do not throw away centuries of hatred because the guy you were thinking of as a target is hot. Really. There needs to be more.
So the heart of the film was really rather messed up. I say it didn't work.
Yeah, this one isn't so likely to get rewatched much.
I much prefer television. Time to get stuck in to setting up the whys and wherefors.
If they'd have left it as Viktor saved her from werewolves, we would have some ambiguity, and actual choice. As it was, she got 100% pulled around by circumstance, and it was therefore very boring.
Further, the DVD I have combines my two least favourite things - no subtitles and no stereo track. 5.1 comes out wrong on my TV. My brother says something in the setup thinks I have a center speaker, so the sound balance comes out crappy. I shall correct this with new hardware I think. But for right now it means the music being louder than the talking, and random rearrangements in balance, and just annoying sound stuff.
So that was just a blah couple of hours, really.
OTOH the films rather obvious attempt to appeal to the goth aesthetic, er, really worked... I now want to coat. Really really want. Lovely black coat with that little semi-celtic pattern at the nape. Swooshy and just that bit decorative. Or Viktors version, in red and gold (except I tend more towards silver), with much more decoration. Lovely.
Bit annoying the vampires all dressing like vampires though. I kept on being snarky at the screen. Live the cliche! Go gothvamps go! :eyeroll:
Plus the way they had her dressed... Okay, I can see the appeal of latex and corsets as much as the next bi chick, but between the corset and the boots, our action heroine moved with all the grace and fluidity of a black plank. Just not sexy. Give us some movement in three dimensions! Flips are cool, yes, but flip and roll at the same time and it looks less like really obvious wire work! I mean, wire work has its place, sure, but the whole of every fight scene? Just does not work for me. I like the kind of martial arts that look like someone put in a few decades of practice and then kicked ass with good old fashioned human muscles.
Yes, I watch the wrong genre for that. I still reserve the right to complain...
Also, her hair looked bad. Looked like she needed to wash it through most of the movie, which to be fair was a realistic response to mucking around in sewers. But it also got in her face all the time. Which, okay, moody, but she's firing guns! She needs to see!
And the gun firing was a bit... I mean, they wobbled so much I'd be surprised if she hit the broad side of a barn, much less a small head sized moving target. Gun in each hand + super strength = no recoil problems, *if* you set up the fake weapons that way! Otherwise, wiggly jumpy guns where you wonder why she bothers.
Plus, there should have been a love story at the emotional heart of it all. Or *some* kind of emotional setup. Lucien was set up as the bad guy, but got all the heartbreak moments. Selene and Michael were like star crossed lovers, except for the part where they weren't lovers, and she only just met him, and didn't seem to like him very much. Except for the trying to save his life thing. I mean, there was a real obvious missing conversation, or bit of acting, or *something* that would tell us why she did it. Because, yes, I see teh pretty, but you do not throw away centuries of hatred because the guy you were thinking of as a target is hot. Really. There needs to be more.
So the heart of the film was really rather messed up. I say it didn't work.
Yeah, this one isn't so likely to get rewatched much.
I much prefer television. Time to get stuck in to setting up the whys and wherefors.