Spoiler Alert!!!
If you haven’t watched
Underworld don’t read this post.
For some time, my view of vampires usually involves this aura of “class”. They are romanticized as dark lovers, elegant creatures of the night who woo their victims before the kill. This view is mainly caused by Anne Rice, but anyway, vampires seem to enjoy a higher status than werewolves.
A common impression of werewolves is that they are victims of the full moon. They are human most of the time except during
that time of the month. They are rabid, violent, semi-mindless creatures who go with their animal urges to satisfy hunger. They seem to be a step up from animals, and therefore seem lower in the monster hierarchy.
Underworld presents vampires and werewolves in mostly the same light, but with a bit of difference. The movie’s werewolves, or Lycans, are no longer slaves to the lunar cycle since they can change at will. The vampires are still the high-necked aristocracy, once masters of the werewolves, now use high-powered guns to commit genocide. The two races are at war… too many spoilers if I write why the war started so I won’t say anything about that anymore, just watch the movie.
Thing is, I had a thought on why vampires need to be the richer, upper class race and not the werewolves.
Think about it… how can one ward off or kill vampires? Garlic. A stake through the heart. Fire. And the all-time effective vampire pulverizer, sunlight.
These three things are cheap, if not absolutely free. You can sharpen any tree branch to make a stake. Fire is ever easy to make as long as you have a lighter or a match and a gallon of flammable liquid. Garlic is still relatively cheap. And no one has so far patented sunlight so it’s very much free for everyone.
Compare all the cost of these items to the cost of a single silver bullet one needs to kill a werewolf and you’ll understand why vampires NEED to amass fortunes just to survive a war between the two races.
The whole point of this meandering part of the post is that because of this movie, and the just written realization I had, I don’t have such a low point of view of werewolves anymore.
But I do have a gripe about the movie.
Apparently Selene
cannot smell blood. True that she was in the sewers and there must be some horrendous aromas wafting around there, but shouldn’t a vampire, a creature whose very survival is depends on drinking blood, recognize the smell of blood amidst all other scents in an area? And to think that she is a Death Dealer, meaning she had killed so many Lycans that by this time she should be able to distinguish the smell of their blood, but no, she needed a passing train’s light to learn there was Lycan blood smeared on a nearby wall.
The transformed Michael looked like a cross between the Hulk and Wolverine’s nemesis, Sabertooth.
The vampires drink cloned blood?! Come to think of it, there weren’t really any human victims by both race. They seem too preoccupied in killing each other off that humans were generally ignored or hurt just cause they got caught in the crossfire.
Selene didn’t drink any blood, well, except for that one instance with Michael, but that isn’t counted since she didn’t drain the guy and it’s necessary to the plot that she do that. Sides, he wasn’t exactly human when she bit him.
Kraven is the epitome of his name. Poor guy, to think he was kinda cute. Rather pathetic that the poor boy kept thinking Selene was all his when she couldn’t care less if he dropped off the face of the planet. Wait, she’d be actually happy if he dropped off the face of the planet. Like I said, poor guy… at least he survived. Hey, I did say I’d put in spoilers so don’t complain!
I
LIKE Lucian.
Raze’s voice is scary. Reminds me of the Starcraft's Protoss.
Viktor’s a crummy old fart. Man, I know he’s supposed to an elder or a leader or something, but his looks are a serious disgrace to the vampire race. No offense to the actor who played him.
Wonder what Marcus/Markus looks like. Marcus is supposed to be of the clan that Michael came from, right? So, technically the blood that dripped on him which awoke him was Lycan blood right? Would this mean that he’d be another Michael-like creature? The half-vampire-half-werewolf creature? Wait, he’s full vampire so that can’t be. But his genes are the same as Michael’s so he won’t die coz of the blood he drank, right?
All this speculation makes me wanna watch the next installment of the movie. I know, the movie’s kinda crappy coz the plot’s waaaaay too predictable and the action and SFX are a cross between the Matrix and Blade, but heck, I still liked it. What can I say? I’m a fan of the occult and goth. Blame Anne Rice.
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