Extremely disappointed in this film. It had everything going for it – vampires vs. werewolves in a guns’n’bombs age (great concept), Kate Beckinsale in black leather (for those who like that sort of thing), gothic mansions, an at least half-intelligent story, …
So what went wrong?
Well, nothing in the film was probably explained – the soundtrack was so poorly mixed if it was loud enough to hear the dialog it was deafening with the guns (and there were a lot of guns!), everything was shot in dark/grainy/gritty low contrast mode, which meant you couldn’t really see what was happening, and the camera shots were wild and crazy with cuts and changes of perspective, everyone wore the same thing (black), so you couldn’t really tell who was on who’s side, and it assumed an awful lot about vampire/werewolf folklore as background knowledge.
By the time you’d warmed to Selene (our Kate) it was almost the end of the film, and Michael was just wet, I’m afraid. The two decent characters were Viktor (the fab Bill Nighy, who’s still got it) and Lucian, who was the star of the show in my opinion (good one, Michael Sheen). I was sure I’d seen Erika (Sophia Myles) before too – and yes indeed, step forward Reinette Du Pompadour (which itself was one of the better Dr Who episodes).
So I’m afraid this one’s a miss. Shame!