From The Vaults: The Underworld Trilogy DVD Reviews

The Underworld Trilogy chronicles the rise of Vampires and Werewolves over the centuries and their struggles against each other. Told through the eyes of a centuries old vampire named Selene (Kate Beckinsale) the story begins amid much gunfire in the first Underworld movie.

Underworld begins with death dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) silently pursuing her quarry through the city and into the subways. The quarry is the eternal enemy of the vampires, the werewolves. After being hunted to the point of near extinction by the death dealers, the werewolves are plotting the creation of a biological weapon. This weapon is the unknowing Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), whom the werewolves are attempting to use to create a hybrid vampire/werewolf breed. Not sure how to stop their plan and untrusting of Kraven (Shane Brolly,) the head vampire while the elders are hibernating, Selene risks her life and awakens Viktor (Bill Nighy,) the vampire elder who made her what she is.

The Underworld vampires and werewolves that are introduced in the original movie appear to be very John Woo inspired, with stylish gun battles and lots of long, flowing trenchcoats as they stalk each other. The story is well done and somewhat original with a few good plot twists to keep you entertained.

As you no doubt know, there is a lot of CGI in this movie. It varies in quality at different points but in certain key scenes, such as the final battle the effects look good and add a nice amount of blood and gore to the movie.

Kate Beckensale starts out a little stiff as Selene but as the movie plays out, she starts to get comfortable in her role and develop a personality for her vampire killer clad in tight black vinyl. Bill Nighy in my opinion was the best actor in this movie. He displayed a vanity coupled with superior airs that one would expect from a dark vampire lord. The sequence where he is awakened from his centurys long slumber is probably the best of the CGI scenes, as he revives and seems to come out of some sort of slimy coccoon that had encased him.

Underworld Evolution is the second feature film and this one once again is told predominantly through Selene who is now fully in love with Michael, the super powerful Vampire/Werewolf hybrid. Evolution delves a bit deeper into the vampire lore and tells of the Corvinus bloodline, from which both Vampires and Werewolves were spawned. Selene rushes to kill the first werewolf that has been imprisoned for centuries as well as his brother, who wants to free him to wreck havoc.

I felt that Evolution is a slightly better film than the first movie. The action sequences are better, the special effects are well done and the storyline is a bit more interesting. Selene comes across a little more dimensional as she falls deeply for the super vamp Michael.

The newest and final film of the trilogy, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, is a prequel and is before the time of Selene, so no Kate Beckensale to watch this time around. This movie focuses more deeply on the relationship between Lucian and Sonya during the dark ages. Even minus Selene, save for voice overs, Rise of the Lycans is a fun, battle filled romp that probably has the best fighting scenes of the trilogy. It is still a strong movie in the trilogy and it will be interesting to see if Sony decides to release any further sequels.

The packaging for this release is a bit different than your standard 3 dvd set. The standard sized case features a longer than usual spindle that all 3 disks lock onto, so in effect you are stacking them on top of each other in the case. I don’t mind this layout so much but it bears mentioning as a lot of people are particular about their discs.

The original special features are all included on their respective discs. I will be the first to admit that I sampled the commentary tracks but my favorite was the original’s track, which featured director Len Wiseman, actress Kate Beckinsale and actor Scott Speedman speaking about their experiences on the set and their characters. I found it a bit more entertaining than the more techinically minded tracks. Fangs Versus Fiction is a 45 minute featurette from the first film that looks at the vampires and werewolves a bit more in depth. Other features include the very cool featurette Making Monsters Roar, that is definately worth checking out. Also Creatue Effects, probably my favorite piece, on the making of the monsters for this series. There are music videos, featurettes on stunts and storyboard comparisons to check out as well. There is just a ton of bonus material and featurettes, as each disc contains that film’s original special features.

If you are like I was and do not own any of the Underworld titles, this is a great way to pickup the whole set at once. If you do already own any titles though, it probably would make more sense to pick up the ones you need individually instead of double dipping as there are no new extra features for this release and the discs are the same discs that come in the single disc releases, except for Underworld, which is disc 1 of the 2 disc release.

Special Features:

Director and Writer Commentary
Technical Commentary
Director and Filmmakers’ Commentary
Filmmaker Commentary
Bloodlines: From Script to Screen
The Hybrid Theory
Making Monsters Roar
The Making of Underworld
The War Rages On
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: From Script to Screen
The Origin of the Feud
Building a Saga
Creature Effects
Music and Mayhem
Music Video: “Deathclub” By William Control
Music Video: “Her Portrait In Black” by Atreyu
Stunts
Sights and Sounds of Underworld
Storyboard Comparison
Music Video by Finch – “Worms of the Earth”
Underworld Trilogy is available now, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.