Spoilers may follow. I'll try to keep them few and vague.
Derivative from the get-go, it just dissappointed me on all fronts. I was hoping for an entertaining action/horror film in the vein of Blade II. It was definitely a case of style over content, and even stylistically was boring.
Basically the plot revolves around Vampires acting like spoiled rich kids with weapons fighting street thug-esque werewolves for reasons unknown. Seline (played by Kate Beckinsdale) discovers the werewolves are following a human named Michael, and steps into the superhero role to figure out why.
The movie takes itself WAY too seriously, to the point of boredom in many places. The plot is overtly convoluted, at times ridiculous, and always predictable. As with most movies in this genre there's a character who's "The One" or some other cliche, and they definitely don't play it off any better than usual.
The characters are two dimensional and wooden, each fitting a certain cliche that goes with sci-fi action films. Suprisingly, at the end of the film, the werewolves, who get played as the "bad guys" throughout the film, gain an added dimension and with it viewer sympathy.
For an action movie, the action was few and far between, and definitely below par The Matrix and Blade. This is however, one of those movies that make me hate The Matrix, with it's pale in comparison psuedo bullet time and wire work karate.
For a horror movie, there were no scares, relatively little gore. The special effects were adequate, though the werewolves look like guys with giant papier mache masks on their heads.
Everyone in the film has a comic-esque name, except for the lone human. There's Lucien, Seline (who reminded me of The Huntress from the Birds of Prey tv show), Kraven (a hunter!), etc. There's definitely a comic influence felt throughout the entire movie, but in one of those crappy independent horror comic kind of ways. Like something Kelly Jones would have been involved with before he gained noteriety, or something Chaos Comics would have done.
Overall, I'm just glad I saw it for free, and didn't pay regular evening ticket prices. Still better than Freddy vs. Jason, but definetly not as good as the movies it wishes it were.
