Underworld (2003)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Tyler K

  
  A boring film with no amazing plot or stellar acting, only shooting, effects, and action. This is Twilight for adults, and of course, Twilight was a movie franchise I never enjoyed. I may see it again, if I really want to, just to make this review more accurate.

• Spencer S

  
  For all the hype from the entranced fans of this monstrous (ha, pun) start to the Underworld franchise, this film isn't the best execution of a story involving vampire/Lycan warfare. The style of this film is dark, brooding, rain soaked, tawdry and deep. The sun no longer shines,… More
  For all the hype from the entranced fans of this monstrous (ha, pun) start to the Underworld franchise, this film isn't the best execution of a story involving vampire/Lycan warfare. The style of this film is dark, brooding, rain soaked, tawdry and deep. The sun no longer shines, and these animalistic species are the forebearers of the Earth. I suppose this is some form of evolution on its own. Humans live their lives as if nothing has happened and they still don't know these creatures exist, which is suspect since the sun is out, and the two warring species have public shootouts in the subway stations. The tone, the action, and very subtle (almost nonexistent) romance between Selene and the changeling known as Michael was enjoyable if not substanceless and lean. The more we get into this story of revenge, the more convoluted and irritably shallow it all is. Instead of this being a simple vendetta against a clansman it's an all out war, which makes little sense as the entire reason it happened was one side's matriarch's fault. That said the characters are also annoyingly simple and none of their baser instincts or the reasons they are fighting at all make any sense. Because their actions made no sense I found Selene to be dull, Michael to be vacant body to pin as a romantic lead, and the elder vampires and Lycans just misinformed idiots. Though I liked the tone and the art direction, this film is so obviously overhyped for its use of intense gunplay between the two sides and the Romeo and Juliet vibe of the Selene/Michael romance. Their romance, by the by, is almost nonexistent. They don't speak to one another for more than a breath and the one time they kiss it's a way to trap him. I didn't find anything enjoyable in the way of character development, and if it weren't for the fact that vampire films rarely have substance or that the tone wasn't so moody it would seem like this film neither made any sense to make nor watch.

• EightThirty .

  
  04/08/2011 (ONLINE) <b>One of the COOLEST flicks!!</b> When this first came out and I'd seen it, I just was wow'ed and was totally into this "Underworld" of Werewolves and Vampires. I'm a "Blade" fan so this was naturally enticing and… More
  04/08/2011 (ONLINE) <b>One of the COOLEST flicks!!</b> When this first came out and I'd seen it, I just was wow'ed and was totally into this "Underworld" of Werewolves and Vampires. I'm a "Blade" fan so this was naturally enticing and it delivered what I expected and more so to be true cause I watched it more than once. I mentioned in my "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" that I saw a fanmade edit which "Rise of the Lycans" and "Underorld" was edited into a single film, a straight to the point edit. That edit really told the story so well that everything I thought I knew was taken to another level coolness. <i>Watching it back to back with the other installments really intensifies the "Underworld" experience and for me I loved every minute!</i>

• Michael M

  
  Underworld may be uninspired and outstretched but its unique style and amazing action sequences make this vampire/ werewolf flick something to howl about. Definetely one of the films i've seen that the critics should re analyse.

• Zach B

  
  There are many ways to tell the tale of vampires. From the traditional stake-in-the-heart myths to the one about vampires sparkling. But, this is the first time I have seen a vampire film give a medical and logical reason behind the vampires. In fact, that might just be one of the… More
  There are many ways to tell the tale of vampires. From the traditional stake-in-the-heart myths to the one about vampires sparkling. But, this is the first time I have seen a vampire film give a medical and logical reason behind the vampires. In fact, that might just be one of the main reasons why I consider Underworld one of the best vampire films from the past decade. (2000 - 2009) The story is very much like Romeo and Juliet: two people from opposite families that are at war with each other and our two main love birds try to fight through the hatred. Only replace them with Death Dealers (vampires) and Lycans (were-wolves) and make them clans and a lot of blood, sensuality, and stunts and scenes from The Matrix and you get this film in a nutshell. Okay, I need to talk about my opinion on the vampires and werewolves, because I do have a few thoughts that I want to stress. First off, with the wide spread appeal of vampires in cinema and in the media as of now, the mythology has been altered to no end with the most common element being that they are perverted, depressed, and hate themselves. Here, along with the reasoning for them is a disease caused by a virus, the vampires either accept what they are with no complaints or they just deal with it. These are what they should be: beautiful to us humans, then hideous and terrifying to their victims. Trust me: they get pretty nasty when they fight. While coping the Matrix quite a bit. Now for the film itself. While I do like the script and think it was well written in some aspects, the acting was stale. I mean, I understand that this film was made with teenage - mid 30's men with the women in tight black leather and the explosive fighting, but I wish that there was some more meat to it. Don't get me wrong, there is a plot with background information that explains most of what is going on, but I would of liked to have more development from the characters. The acting is stale, as I have said. There was really nothing that stood out to me in this film like I would of liked, but what we did get was some beautiful eye candy to gaze at. Mostly from Kate Beckinsale, but that I just me. She is an okay actress, but I would of liked more emotion from her either then furious and determined. I understand she has a job to do and she likes it, but showing some emotion will not kill you, darling. Len Wiseman: you are not a good director. I am sorry, but you play this movie too much as a way to showcase special effects and not enough with telling the story. Plus, you borrowed so much from so many other films that it pains me to say this, but you are one of the reasons why this film is having the rating I am giving it and not a perfect rating. Other then the effects (which are good), you don't let the film breath and grow. It is from one action shot to a determined shot, to another action shot with guy eye candy thrown in. But, with telling what parts of the story you do tell, it was not that bad and refreshing. Maybe focus on the story a bit more next time. With vampires and werewolves in cinema, there are better films then this. But within the past decade, this is one of the best. If anything, watch this film for the mythology of the vampires, the great stunt works, and, of course, for Kate Beckinsale. Very entertaining and watchable, though slow.

• Phil H

  
  I loved this idea, loved it, I love vamp and werewolf movies, brooding, dark, gothic and violent, just for adults, the way it should be, its just alitte too cgi heavy for me. The Lycans are just not believeable and look waaay too plastic which is such a shame, also the ending with the… More
  I loved this idea, loved it, I love vamp and werewolf movies, brooding, dark, gothic and violent, just for adults, the way it should be, its just alitte too cgi heavy for me. The Lycans are just not believeable and look waaay too plastic which is such a shame, also the ending with the vamp/werewolf hybrid is very flat (a skinny 'Incredible Hulk' springs to mind). I like the fact they tried to do something without cgi with 'Corvin's' hybrid character but its just looks too plain, nothing thrilling a tall plus they just seemed to spray him all black..that's its, nothing more!?. Its still rocks and comes close to a new 'Crow' style flick (if it had some harder tunes in there), Beckinsale is gorgeous and Nighy is excellent, close but just misses, but because it's vamps and werewolfs I just cant say no hehe. Kudos for handling two major horror franchises together in a face off with relative success, unlike 'AvP'.

• Unknown H

  
  I really like the Underworld movies and its not just because 90% of the cast are hot. I think it takes the whole vampire vs werewolf storyline that has been told and thousand times to a new and spontenously intelligent level. Awesome movie.

• Sophie B

  
  A fairly good and interesting film with a good cast and good performances (especially from Sheen and Nighy) however I felt that I needed to know about the film before I saw it. I found it confusing and difficult to follow at times as it just jumped ahead quite fast. I don't… More
  A fairly good and interesting film with a good cast and good performances (especially from Sheen and Nighy) however I felt that I needed to know about the film before I saw it. I found it confusing and difficult to follow at times as it just jumped ahead quite fast. I don't really know what the basic premise is eg the fight between the Death Dealers and the Lycans.

• Brad W

  
  Underworld wasn't very bad, but its a little overrated by the audience. The main plot revolves around Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a vampire who is a Death Dealer hunting Lycans. She finds herself attracted to a human, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) who is being targeted by the… More
  Underworld wasn't very bad, but its a little overrated by the audience. The main plot revolves around Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a vampire who is a Death Dealer hunting Lycans. She finds herself attracted to a human, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) who is being targeted by the Lycans. After Michael is bitten by a Lycan, Selene must decide whether to do her duty and kill him or go against her clan and save him. The action is very good I will admit, and it had me pumped. The plot is ridiculous and truly got more and more ridiculous as it went along. The actors are the action versions of Twilight, because for sewer fighting vampires, none of them were ugly, and when I say that, I mean why were none of them even close to ugly, are all vampires beautiful? I give credit to the effects because I think they worked hard on it. Overall the production of the film is great, but with acting and plot the film fails.

• Conner R

  
  This is one of those times where an entire sub-genre is suddenly brought back to life in ways it never was before, but in Underworld's case it's two. Both Vampire and Werewolf movies had taken a dive for a long time and it seemed like no one was going to pull them out of… More
  This is one of those times where an entire sub-genre is suddenly brought back to life in ways it never was before, but in Underworld's case it's two. Both Vampire and Werewolf movies had taken a dive for a long time and it seemed like no one was going to pull them out of low-budget and straight to video markets. Then along comes Len Wiseman and his complete visionary tale that combines the two species into one viscous war ground. I don't think many people could have seen such a cool movie idea based on film history. You pretty much have the Wolfman and Dracula, with a few classics thrown out on either side. This threw away 80% of the clichés and kept in only what was necessary and plausible. You get rid of the garlic and silver canes and bring in UV bullets and liquidized silver. There was also an entirely new mythology and new characters built around this epic. It's the best possible way to deal with a stale property; just built it from the ground up. The result is one of the coolest action/horror movies to exist within the last ten years easy. Giving someone like Kate Beckinsale the reigns as the protagonist is great for eye candy and acting chops; the best of both worlds. Then you throw a couple of classically trained actors on either side (Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy) and you have one solid movie. However, Len Wiseman went a step further and made this look amazing and have the production value of a movie three times its budget. The sets, creature effects and costuming is ridiculously well put together. Now it's sort've easy to look past Underworld now that so many movies have profited from its success, but this really is a masterpiece when it comes to either Vampire and Werewolf movies. In my opinion, it's a masterpiece period.

• Marc L

  
  This movie is one of my favorites, and is certainly the best vampire movie out there. Not sure why it got 31% here. Of course, when talking about Underworld, the first thing you have to talk about is the plot. Underworld had a very impressive plot, which may have some tribute to… More
  This movie is one of my favorites, and is certainly the best vampire movie out there. Not sure why it got 31% here. Of course, when talking about Underworld, the first thing you have to talk about is the plot. Underworld had a very impressive plot, which may have some tribute to Romeo and Juliet. It takes place in modern day New York where two races, Vampires and Lycans (Werewolves) have been fighting each other for centuries. Don't ask any more about the conflict, it's a long story. The main character, a vampire named Selene, played by the beautiful Kate Beckinsale, is saved by a medical student named Michael, a human. Things get more complicated as it turns out Michael has the only correct blood type to create a Lycan/vampire hybrid, one that the Lycans want to use to kill the vampires. Of course, the special affects were amazing too. The Visual effects could easily be compared to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. The action scenes were amazing, practically as good as the Matrix The acting wasn't perfect, but it had it's good points. Kate Beckinsale, as always, did a pretty good job. So did Bill Nighy, playing his role as the manipulative Victor to a hilt. Bottom line, this movie was awesome. It has every thing you want. Interesting romance, great plot, suspense, and enough character development to make 5 Underworld movies. Underworld was amazing.

• Shawn E

  
  The gorgeous blood sucking Kate Beckinsale is a chick you don't want to mess with. This film is the dark action movie that strives ahead of all other vampire films. Although some of the effects are a little weak, this film has a great amount of action and gun brawls.

• moon r

  
  Part old timey fantasy, part matrixy sci-fi, and middle brow actioner (is there ay other kind...don't answer) to boot, one is tempted to snob up and pretend as if it wasn't any good. But I'm not the one.

• Jeff "

  
  Underworld is a different take on the vampire lore. The film surrounds centuries old war between Vampire and Lycans(werewolves) I know it sounds like something outta Twilight, but this film came before that crap series of books and films. Kate Beckinsale plays Selene, a warrior set… More
  Underworld is a different take on the vampire lore. The film surrounds centuries old war between Vampire and Lycans(werewolves) I know it sounds like something outta Twilight, but this film came before that crap series of books and films. Kate Beckinsale plays Selene, a warrior set out to destroy Lycans. When a human named Michael seems to be the target of the Lycans, Selene knows that something that the Lycans are planing something. The reason that this film succeeds as more than just a stupid attempt at being another Blade clone is the fact that they've written a very interesting back story as to why the Vampires and Lycans have waged such a war over the course of a 1000 years. I found the back story to be incredibly entertaining and one of two very strong aspects of the film. The second of course being the gothic overtones of the film. The whole atmosphere of the film was dark and melancholic. Something that helped the film a lot. Underworld is of course flawed but it's still a very good action horror film. The main thing you got to remember while watching this film is that it tries to be different by expanding the realm of traditional vampire films. The film as a whole works well and the characters are very interesting to boot. One of the best performances here is Michael Sheen as Lucian, Sheen always displays a strong acting ability in whatever movie he plays. In Underworld, he plays the leader of the Lycans and he is simply terrific in the part. Underworld is a breath of fresh air and delivers terrific entertainment even though it's a flawed film, the film manages to be something interesting enough for it's viewer. The concept behind Underworld is a more elaborate story and adds so much to a classic genre of literature and film. An entertaining new breed of action horror, Underworld takes traditional vampire elements with a modern day twist, and despite it's flaws, the end results are good enough to satisfy action and horror buff. Skip Underworld: Evolution, though.

• Martin S

  
  It was good. But not perfect. I think most of the effects was pretty good. And Michael Sheen was pretty impresseive. He was pretty cool. Now I get what Becks saw in him. And he has a cool voice too. Not a huge fan of the plot. But the overall result was okay.

• Anthony L

  
  I've been looking forward to watching Underworld for a while now. I'm not too disappointed. It's a Gothic-Matrix really, flash visuals, lots of fighting, lots of shooting. Still, I can't help but think Vampires vs. Werewolves could have been a bit cooler than this.… More
  I've been looking forward to watching Underworld for a while now. I'm not too disappointed. It's a Gothic-Matrix really, flash visuals, lots of fighting, lots of shooting. Still, I can't help but think Vampires vs. Werewolves could have been a bit cooler than this. I anticipate the sequels. It does bother me though that Vampires are always so wanky in films and why do assassins always wear tight-leather jump-suits or long leather coats, it's not very inconspicuous. Does what it says on the tin and does it well.

• KJ P

  
  Very exciting! That's about all I can say!

• Jake .

  
  I admit it. I really like Underworld, but for some reason I had never gotten around to watching this one - the first one. Honestly, it has to be the best one. Its dark, broody, and stylish, like the other ones, but it also has a bit of story that actually makes sense. I guess, it… More
  I admit it. I really like Underworld, but for some reason I had never gotten around to watching this one - the first one. Honestly, it has to be the best one. Its dark, broody, and stylish, like the other ones, but it also has a bit of story that actually makes sense. I guess, it pretty much exactly the same as the other, just done a bit better.

• Daniel H

  
  If only it didn't shamelessly steal from one of my favorite RPG series. Or, for that matter, was a good action film.

• Josh L

  
  Special effects aren't very good, but I liked the look and feel of the movie. Not to mention Kate Beckinsale... worth it for people who like movies of its ilk.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings