Movie Reviews: Underworld and The Ring
Warning: There may be some minor spoilers ahead. I tried to keep the reviews as spoiler free as possible, but any review you ever read is going to give you a little ideaof what to expect.
Carla and I decided to go see Underworld yesterday morning. Originally, she did not want to see it but she changed her mind. So, we run up to the theatre to catch a matinee.

I liked it. Carla didn't. A lot of people won't and for good reasons. In my opinion, it wasn't a fantastic movie. It was just good. I'm sure a lot of people won't even give it that.

As action movies goes, the fight scenes in this movie would have been jaw-dropping twenty years ago. between the stunts and special effects, it has a lot of neat stuff. However, since movies like The Matrix and Spiderman have raised the bar for action movies, this one fails to live up to modern expectations. Since the action sequences is a lot of the selling point for a movie like this, it's a shame.

The end fight has one of the best build-ups I've ever seen and then disappoints. I won't say much in order not to give anything away but let me say this: We've seen it before.

Visually, the sets and costumes in this movie were great. I'm a sucker for movies with big gothic cities like you see in Batman, Dark City, The Crow, and even Metropolis. Underworld doesn't show you a lot of the city and mostly sticks to just a couple of sets but it makes full use of the sets it does have.

The acting could have been much better. I'm not sure if it was the actor's faults or the scripts but none of the characters seemed....well....alive. You could tell that they were supposed to have emotions...because they tell you of their anger and jeaolusy. You rarely see it. Their were a few good bits as you think the actors are struggling to give some shallow characters a little depth.

The plot was generally weak. It has some good twists in it, but not enough to save it.

I haven't told you the worst part of Underworld. To explain this I have to bring up a movie that was worse than it: Judge Dredd. When the Judge Dredd movie came out, I was really looking forward to it. I was a big fan of the comics. However, they added a humorous character that followed Dredd through most of the movie that grated on my nerves through the whole movie. I counted it as one of the worst comic book movie adaptions I've ever seen and that says a lot. However, now I understand why they felt they needed to add the "humorous side-kick". Judge Dredd comics were funny, but in a way that would not have translated well to a movie. Action movies need light-hearted scenes. Judge Dredd wouldn't have had any without the annoying character (and I think still didn't have any, but at least they tried.) Underworld didn't have any humor. All of the characters were deadly serious. I don't think any of the characters even cracked a smile through the whole thing. Because of this, the movie dragged. It had a serious case of "taking itself to seriously."

Underworld is eye-candy, but not much more. Since I like good visuals, I enjoyed it. Your mileage may vary.

Last night, I wasn't feeling very good at all. My sinus allergies have been bad all weekend and I'm still feeling horrible today. Not having a clear head, I decided that I didn't want to do anything that required much thought. I decided to watch a movie. A co-worker loaned me The Ring on DVD the other day, so I decided to watch it.

Big mistake.

The Ring is one of those movies that you really need/want to pay attention to. It's got a great plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat glued to the screen. It was sucked me in so much that I was pausing the movie whenever I had to blow my nose....in case the kleenex blocked my view and I missed something.

The Ring was based on a foreign film, a Japanese film called Ringu. It shows. It has one of those well-crafted stories that you rarely see out of Hollywood. Every moment of the movie moves the story along or gives you some hint of what is going on.

...and it's creepy. While most horror movies go for the cheap scare (someone jumping out of the darkness, etc.) or gore, this movie doesn't do any of that. I wouldn't say its scary. I think very few movies are. But, this movie gets under your skin and makes you a bit nervous without ever resorting to the usual horror movie tactics. That's pretty amazing.

For those of you don't know and are interested, the basic premise of this movie is that there is a video tape. Anybody who watches it will die in 7 days. The main character, a reporter, is researching the tape after she watches it. She has seven days to figure it out.

Like I said: edge of my seat. I made the mistake of not seeing The Sixth Sense before other people ruined the ending for me. This movie is a lot like I imagine Sixth Sense was for people. Don't make the mistake of waiting until someone else spoils it for you. See The Ring.

My scores for these movies on a 1-10 scale:
Underworld
Plot/script: 3.5
Acting: 3
Visuals: 8
Soundtrack: 5
Overall (not an average): 6 but then I'm giving it bonus points for visuals

The Ring
Plot/script: 9
Acting: 8
Visuals: 8
Soundtrack: 5
Overall: 8.5