Werecreature Reviews

Overall the movie was a decent flick. The emotional connection to Selene was never really felt by me. She's driven at her warrior job, an admirable quality, but sometimes making a character to tough keeps the audience at an arm’s length too. Usually somewhere in the film we're let in to see beyond the barrier, but I never felt like any scene really pulled that off, even though they tried. That being said, once you don't really care about the main character it takes away the desire to see that character in the rest of the film. It's also apparent that Selene has a "thing" for Michael, the character that everyone is hunting, but it's so briefly stated that her desire to protect him is suspicious. Is she there to stop the werewolves from gaining a powerful weapon against them, or does she also care about him and she's afraid he'll be hurt? I realize that is how it’s supposed to be adding to the tension of it all until she come to love him. I know this, yet I did not feel this. Like I said the ability to not really emotionally connect with Selene taints a lot of the rest of the film for me, and possibly unjustly. In fact, the character that gets the most emotional connection to the audience is Lucien. Where as Michael is a 2d character that seems to just be a cog to move the plot. The special effects scenes are excellent and the costumes and cinematography of this film are its true achievements. The atmosphere alone is worth watching the movie in full. The ending was alright, but nothing special. For a movie with so many supernatural creatures running amuck it could have delivered a lot more.

nWoD Inspiration

Vampires. This movie is full of it. Victor makes a perfect high blood potency vampire leader. Their coven in the mansion is a spectacular setting to use with its drapes blacking out all the windows. I don't think I’ve ever seen so many characters in black trench coats at one time as when the vampires were in the underground area at the end. Vampires like Victor and Amelia would probably be Ventrue. Selene and Kraven also truly look the part of vampires, the searing blue eyes and the extremely pale skin. And I felt they pulled off "the look" well. The same is true with Victor.

Werewolves. There is plenty here as well, but I personally was much less impressed with the werewolf side of it. The shifting seemed just wrong somehow (and no I’m not sure what "right" is).
They also died far too easy. A few got shot three or four times and dropped. I realize they were probably using silver bullets and all that, but still. They also seemed like wobbling beasts instead of stalking wolves. They did however have an awesome lair. It's a great place to set any and all kinds of NWOD organizations. They may have just been "sewers" but the term sewer alone in my mind conjures up small single tunnels. Not iron doorways and large underground rooms with ladders that descend deeper into a labyrinth. The room at the very end is perfect place to set enemies waiting under water (you'd have to make it deeper), or for some artifact or scroll or some such item to be knocked out of a players hand during a fight into the grey water. This would create havoc as one player has to dodge bullets, spells, or leaping monsters while they sift through the murky water for whatever it is they lost. I'm of course just tossing examples of uses of that room in a game- kind of speaking to the Storyteller with this sort of thing.

Hybrid. Careful now, this could bite you ST's in the ass. If you introduce the ability to become one you should go to great lengths to explain that not everyone can become one, and that there is some super crazy story arc quest involved. Possibly they need the blood of a certain vampire, and of a certain werewolf. The hybrid as it stands would be overpowered compared to the other classes, as was the intent of the film. I would only recommend using them in your storyline as NPC's or even enemies.

The Weapons: The UV bullets and the silver flying discs were cool. That being said I don't think you should bust your Storyteller's balls about getting some for your characters, unless they follow the rules of some preexisting weapon. The flying discs could easily use the stats of a throwing knife. If you wanted them to be a little more special than just the knife stats you could also make it harder for them to shift forms while discs were in them. Perhaps a penalty to rolls or shifting takes longer than usual. The UV bullets however... well that's tricky. The amount of damage caused by sunlight is so intense to have it at your disposal is so unbalancing its game breaking. I personally wouldn't allow such a weapon to exist in one of my games, however, if you decide to allow it I’d advise you to make it so difficult to use. The bullet must be kept in a special container, and is extremely expensive (either in money or in favors) and has to be loaded and fired within the span of 5 seconds or else the UV light emits completely out. This way-say in a combat situation- a character would have to spend a round drawing his gun (3 seconds). He'd then have to load the gun (3 more seconds). He'd then have to fire the gun (3 more seconds). As the light from the bullet fades it eventually dies like a battery and goes dark. If the bullet hits (or if you want to be a really nice storyteller and let the light affect an area) it only lasts for one round of damage, or aka one round of exposure to sunlight. This may all seem a bit hefty, but the fact is bullets normally do bashing to vampires and sunlight does aggravated. I think it's more than fair and then some.

The Lighting. This movie hit one thing solidly on the head. The cinematography was perfect. The entire movie has a darkness to it. Not horror movie things in the dark darkness, but more of a world just consumed by the shadow and you the viewer has pierced through to see the truth, to have awakened. The dark clothes and the sets accentuate it, but it sets a perfect visual mood for the movie. That's difficult to emulate, but if you refer your players to either scenes, or locations in that film, the coloring created in that film will be in their minds. That's a powerful tool as sometimes the ole "you're in a dark tunnel" doesn't always have the same effect.