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
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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.)