I saw this first in a theatre in 2003. Revisited it recently on a DVD. Seen all its sequels in theatre. The plot - Kate Beckinsale is a vampire looking incredibly hot in ridiculously tight leather matrix style clothes whose job it is to eliminate the werewolves as part of the centuries old war between the two species. Her acting is good too. Things change when Beckinsale tries to protect a human, Speedman who is targetted by the werewolves for some reasons. The movie has a distinctively Gothic look, with great attention given to the backdrop. Every inch of the cinematography is polished. The architecture and costumes are true fashion statements. This world is so dense with aggressiveness it is almost surreal. Borrowing from The Matrix and Blade, the director Len Wiseman made Underworld more of a goth action flick n less of a vampire/werewolf. Nonetheless pretty enjoyable action flick. Was happy that none of those hand held shaky cam stuff was added.

When Underworld was release in the theaters I didn't bother seeing it, because of the bad reviews. I recently rented it because the video store didn't have anything better to offer, that I had not already seen, and I must say that I was very much surprised. It was far better than expected. I especially liked the acting of Bill Nighy as the vampire lord Viktor, and Micheal Sheen as the werewolf leader Lucian. I think that the plot is quite strong, and it does not ruin the vampire or werewolf legend. What i didn't like as much was the werewolf costumes. I didn't find the convincing. But apart from that, it was very entertaining, and I am looking forward to see the sequel i the theaters.

Great fantasy/horror films are hard to come by and one of the great ones that comes to mind is Underworld. The introduction of Kate Beckinsale explaining the war between vampires and lycans (werewolves) was a tremendous start and hooks the viewer right off the bat. Len Wiseman really put his heart into this story, the craft is just exceptional. Kate Beckinsale was a great choice to play Seline, the lead vampire and main character. However, it was Bill Nighly that really flourished in the film playing the stern ruthless head vampire, Viktor. Great action sequences are prevalent throughout and even though it doesn't hold up today like it did in the early 2000's, it's still a great film. If you haven't seen Underworld you have really missed out on a great action, fantasy, horror flick.

Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful warrior, is entrenched in a war between the vampire and werewolf races. Although she is aligned with the vampires, she falls in love with Michael, a human who is sought by werewolves for unknown reasons.What so you get if you create a world of sleek vampires, make them angry at a world of werewolves, infuse some "Matrix" mojo, and add a blue-grey lens to the camera? You might think "Twilight" or "True Blood" or something else, and you'd be right. Add a butt-load of guns, and you would have "Underworld".Is this Kate Beckinsale's breakout role? I mean, I know she did some BBC films or something classy, but if you live in my bubble (the genre film bubble), this is what you most associate her with, sort of like Milla Jovovich in "Resident Evil". And with about thirty sequels, why not?