It's of the breed of the best of the immaculately stylish, original property action films of the Millennial era that focused on fantastical subject matter (_The Matrix, Blade, et al_) and somehow I haven't seen anything else come close to capturing the same magic since. The cinematography and lighting and color grading are truly iconic, and the casting and performances are inspired. The soundtrack songs constitute an entire original concept album themselves, on top of the original (and actually _original_ score). Also, the werewolves. I'd never seen anything like it at the time.

**It's a visual and tonal masterpiece**. And Hollywood will seemingly never acknowledge that kind of achievement for genre films like this, if they _only_ have a good script, and great performances, and fantastic production design and cinematography, but aren't tickling the nethers of the current social zeitgeist. _Underworld_ (and to a slightly lesser degree, its direct sequel) have a timeless quality and a focused attention to the textural grain of the picture, the score, and of the performances, that makes it ripe for repeat viewings to take it all in. Really, nothing has aged badly, with the possible exception of some of the in-motion werewolf CGI, but it's still great, and generally works on the rule of "less is more" when it comes to showing the terror beasts off.

And to give extra credit to the actors, (Kate, of course, but this counts for everyone) in the initial—gorgeously Gothic and masterfully choreographed and shot—shootout in the subway (and throughout the film), unlike the _Matrix_ and _Blade_— films where most everyone is wearing sunglasses at night (fair enough—vampires and simulation and rule of cool) **Kate and the other actors keep their eyes open, not flinching, whilst they fire their firearms**, and, on top of that, all look competent, and Kate, especially, manages to handle the action gunplay with a stylish flair on top of being realistic. It's a fine line between stylish and "anime protagonist", seen in something like _Ultraviolet_, but here it's _just right_.


Me bitching about Hollywood and Kate Beckinsale not getting the recognition she deserves
===


The Hollywood press are a bunch of pretentious gits that I've never once seen acknowledge their own pretenses and extreme and mercurial biases, and Kate has never received the proper acclaim and recognition for being such a varied and capable actress. She's continued to bounce around making indies, period pieces (a riot in _Love and Friendship_), being perhaps the most competent female action lead in the west, and yet somehow still doesn't get the recognition that even Milla Jovovich has, despite pretty much all of the RE films in existence falling far short of the first live action feature. She (Milla) could do with a return to something with dramatic weight, though, as she is herself a capable actress.


Random pop culture influence note:
_Skyrim_ almost entirely ripped off the production design of the vampire armor and vampire lord of this film's sequel for its 'Dawngaurd' DLC. Werewolves, too, but that's a harder sell, despite how great the Underworld werewolves were compared to pretty much anything that came before it (that I'm aware of.)

Movies like _Underworld_ just don't end up with the calibre of actor that _Underworld_ has under normal circumstances. Somehow, _Underworld_ did though, and yes, it's very much a product of that early '00s industrial inspired age, but it is a solid, solid take on some realistic(ish) aspects of supernatural monster mythos.

_Final rating:★★★★ - Very strong appeal. A personal favourite._

7/10
Just.
After 20yrs this struggles quite a bit to stay decent especially when you have the Resident Evil franchise that has not aged at all and is still
Awesome to this day.
Underworld was really good back in the day being the Vampire,werewolf, Matrix hybrid that it is, but now two decades later it seemed like a Hella of a lot of lifting and definitely seemed to drag out towards the second act,
It probably didn't help that I was watching the
Unrated-extended cut
edition with an extra
20 mins added to the running time but boy I was definitely grinding that last hour out.
Everyone was awesome in their roles, Kate/Selene was brilliant and very easy on the eyes, although I wasn't that invested in the hole love thing going on, but I get it they had to mirror the past to set up the plot of the story with the Victor daughter drama.
But when it got down to the two races duking it out at the end it was all pretty cool and thrilling, just took a long way round the houses to get their.
Their is no denying that this movie is very stylish and clearly knows what it is and what it wants to be.
All in all not a bad watch but sadly I fear it ain't going to hold up to a view in another10 years.
But I will always have fond memories of it from 2003 when literally this was the best of it's type and definitely was at the top of being a cool,slick Awesome
action movie without an equal at the time.

I quite enjoyed this. True, it isn't the most original concept and we have oft seen similar styles of treatment of ancient rivalries, but Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen are engaging enough in this tale of vampires v werewolves. Scott Speedman provides the eye candy (but very little else) and Bill Nighy is superbly over the top as the recently raised from his slumbers "Viktor". It isn't for the purists of the genre, but a perfectly watchable 2 hours of escapism.

**Overall : Action, horror, monsters, guns, striking practical effects, spectacular creature designs, and a surprisingly proven and fantastic cast led by Kate Beckinsale all get mashed together to create one of the best creature features there is!**

Underworld brings a new twist to the vampire and werewolf genre by pitting them against each other as they vie for control of the criminal underworld ruled by nightmarish creatures. It's hard to believe the budget for this film is relatively small because it doesn't feel limited in any way. The action and fight sequences are superb, with Kate Beckinsale proving herself an unstoppable action heroine for the first time with her prior career consisting of primarily romcoms. The creature design, special effects, sets, cinematography, and even the rest of the cast are all top-notch. Len Wiseman found a way to take a small budget and produce a big-budget genre-blending masterstroke that any action or horror fan is sure to love.