History YMMV / Underworld2003

* TheChrisCarterEffect: Arguably the biggest problem with the series starting with the fourth film. The second film directly continues the SequelHook with Markus, and end in a way that more or less leaves the story resolved: basically all known vampire and lycan leaders are now dead while Selene and Michael are now free to live their lives in peace. With the third film being a prequel, the films could have ended as a trilogy with a more or less satisfying conclusion. However the fourth film gave Selene and Michael a HappyEndingOverride, the latter being DemotedToExtra, and with the twist that humans were now aware of the war between vampires and lycans, a massive plot development that's then ignored in ''Blood Wars''. Combined with how the lycans became more [[DesignatedVillain villainous]] in these films, it gives off the impression that there is no plan on how to conclude the films.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Or rather, Just Here For Kate Beckinsale. A lot of movie-goers freely admit that she's more or less the sole reason they continued to watch the films after the second one. While pop culture likes to dismiss Selene as a generic ActionGirl, she has a sizable collection of fans who love her rich backstory and character development between the first two films especially.

** [[spoiler:The death of Sonja is surprisingly touching.]]

** Frequently invoked about ''Rise of the Lycans'', as despite being critically slammed in general, Michael Sheen's performance was nonetheless praised as one of the highlights of the movie.

* DesignatedVillain: The lycans become this in ''Awakening'' and ''Blood Wars''. TheReveal of the first film was that, contrary to what Selene and other younger vampires were told, it was the vampires who started the war and were overall the more villainous, while the lycans are a former SlaveRace fighting for their freedom. ''Awakening'' however flips the dynamic by making the vampires the race primarily being hunted and the lycans are now in positions of authority, and ''Blood Wars'' continues the idea of the lycans being the primary aggressors of the war unlike the vampires. This makes it odd to see Selene, who developed feelings for a lycan and betrayed her coven for him, become [[spoiler:the new coven leader after defeating a lycan army]].

* CatharsisFactor: After everything he does and all the deaths and tragedy he's responsible for, seeing [[spoiler:Viktor]] get killed by Selene is awesome and incredibly satisfying.

** Original film & ''Evolution'': [[SmugSnake Kraven]], the supposed hero to the vampire covens, is a [[AmbitionIsEvil greedy and treacherous]] vampire who earned his rank by covering up the vampire elder Viktor's routine massacres of humans, massacres that Kraven himself participates in for sport. Selling out to Lucian and allowing the Lycans to abduct and experiment on humans, Kraven allows the Lycans to massacre entire groups of vampires, including the elder Amelia. Kraven plans to let the Lycans slaughter the vampires so he can rule what remains, even murdering Lucian himself before attempting a final coup to destroy the supposedly sleeping Markus.

** Erika and David have huge fanbase as well, despite being introduced in secondary roles. This is partially due to them being played by Creator/SophiaMyles and Creator/TheoJames, respectively. Erika's interesting dynamics with Kraven and Selene and cat-like reaction to finding out Michael is a Lycan helps a lot, as does Thomas's pleasant idealism and secret [[spoiler:RoyalBlood]].
** Luka, the handmaiden from the third movie, has few scenes and even fewer lines, but commands a lot of interest due to her UndyingLoyalty to Sonja.

* FirstInstallmentWins: The first film in 2003 is the most remembered for its Gothic visuals, at the time unconventional choice to have a female protagonist, extensive backstory and general fun factor. As seen elsewhere, the sequels are more divisive on which one is better or worse than the one before.

* GeniusBonus: The Corvinus clan, the original patriarchs of the Vampire race, are named after the 15th century Hungarian king [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Corvinus Matthias Corvinus]]. If you know your vampire lore better than most, you might know that Matthias Corvinus was a contemporary and political rival of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler Vlad Tepes]], the historical figure that Stoker's [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Count Dracula]] was based on and named after. [[note]] Vlad's patronymic title was "Vlad Dracula" ("Vlad, Son of the Dragon") as his father styled himself "Vlad Dracul" ("Vlad the Dragon").[[/note]] Naming the founder of the Vampire race "Corvinus" is a subtle ShoutOut to the most famous vampire in all of fiction.

** Lucien and Kraven snipe at each other LikeAnOldMarriedCouple, and Lucien says the line "I bled for you once" rather like a spurned lover.

** Creator/MichaelSheen played a werewolf fighting against vampires in this franchise. [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Then he became a vampire fighting werewolves...]]
** Also related to Twilight; in the first film Lucian tells a shirtless werewolf named [[Creator/TaylorLautner Taylor]] to put some clothes on.

** Years after their appearances in ''Underworld'', Bill Nighy and Tony Curran appeared in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E10VincentAndTheDoctor Vincent and the Doctor]]", with Nighy playing an art historian and Curran playing Vincent van Gogh; in contrast to Victor and Marcus's rivalry, Nighy's character warmly praises Vincent van Gogh as a painter and a man, to the extent that Vincent gives the man a warm hug after hearing how his work will be perceived in the future.
** Quint is played by Kris Holden-Reid, who plays a werewolf named Dyson in ''Series/LostGirl''.
** Marcus's actor Tony Curran had played a pure blooded vampire in ''Film/BladeII''.

** Rhona Mitra plays Sonja in ''Rise of the Lycans'', who Selene was specifically said to be a ReplacementGoldfish for. Already resembling Kate Beckinsale quite a lot, she would then play a character very like Selene in ''{{Film/Doomsday}}'' - a humourless ActionGirl unlike Sonja's LadyOfWar persona, complete with the backstory of being an orphan and Selene's low-maintenance bob hairstyle.

** Selene has been through a TraumaCongaLine by the end of the first film. At the age of nineteen, she witnessed her entire family slaughtered in one night, including two six-year-old nieces, and has spent the rest of her life fighting Lycans because of it. Then she finds out [[spoiler: Viktor her father figure was the one who murdered her family, and spent centuries {{Gaslighting}} her about the Lycans]]. She's surprisingly un-angsty about it all; while clearly sad when she reveals her backstory to Michael, her voice barely changes.

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: When Viktor heads off to kill the 'Abomination', Michael, the [[spoiler:newly transformed hybrid emerges, and as Viktor and he stare each other down, Michael SHOVES Viktor, sending him flying back.]]
* MoralEventHorizon: Viktor in '' Rise Of The Lycans'' shows just how firm his [[FantasticRacism anti-Lycan]] [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalism]] is when [[spoiler:he votes "aye" to his ''own daughter's'' execution, thus sealing the unanimous vote against her.]] Though he does it remorsefully, he cements it by blaming it all on [[spoiler:Lucian for impregnating her]], rather than himself for dealing out the punishment. Is it any wonder that you'd be polarized concerning the vampires and Lycans if you saw this installment in addition to one of the first two?

** Pretty much any time Kraven's onscreen - his actor (Shane Brolly, who's Irish) had a ''nasty'' case of OohMeAccentsSlipping and seemed determined to overact in every single scene. Reception to Brolly's portrayal was almost universally negative. Especially when Erika tells him that Michael has been bitten by Lycans, and there's a painfully long pause before Kraven's big "what!"
** Eve's GameFace looks more like a girl hamming up a Halloween makeup.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The sequels are generally viewed as being progressively worse, even by hardcore fans. While critics never had the highest opinion of the franchise to begin with, they usually acknowledge that the first movie had some effort put into things like the storyline, special effects and action sequences, while the sequels get thrashed in reviews. Fans tend to be less than impressed by the direction the story takes as the movies go on.

** ''Awakening'' is seen as a slight improvement due to dabbling in new ideas, such as humans finding out vampires and lycans exist and Selene dealing with [[spoiler:motherhood]], though many people were disappointed that Michael was mostly absent and that some of the more interesting parts of this premise went unexplored.
** ''Blood Wars'' tends to be viewed as the weakest of the sequels (to the point it may have been a FranchiseKiller), as despite trying to return to the franchise's FurAgainstFang roots, many viewers disliked the movie retconning or forgetting major plot developments (such as the BrokenMasquerade and the lycans having justified grievances against the vampires), dropping a bridge on [[spoiler:Michael]] and introducing a glut of new, uninteresting characters who just took screentime away from the characters the audience already knew and cared about.
* StrangledByTheRedString: There is never any indication that Selene feels any real emotion toward Michael; they don't actually have any sort of conversation with each other about anything apart from vampires and werewolves, and they have known each other for a total of about two days. WordOfGod says this was the way it was supposed to be; special Features on the DVD reveal that the two characters were not supposed to actually be "in love," but rather attracted to each other based on lust, confused feelings, and being forced together.

** The ending of the first movie sets up a plotline in which the general vampire populace learns the truth of how the war began and Michael and Selene could help usher in a new age of allied vampires and lycans (especially as Michael is a hybrid with no prior knowledge, allegiances or grievances regarding the ancient feud). It could've also set up something of a redemption arc for Selene. Unfortunately, after the first movie this plotline is [[AbortedArc seemingly forgotten]] and with the exception of the prequel, lycans are almost exclusively treated as the villains.
** Not only is [[spoiler:Lucian not actually dead when Raze finds him during the climax of the first movie, Raze is carrying the blood samples from Amelia and Lucian has already been injected with Michael's blood]].
** All the most interesting parts about TheUnmasquedWorld of ''Awakening'' were barely touched on. Questions such as "Who discovered the two races and how?" and "What was the immediate reaction of Humanity" were unaddressed. Even the concept of a group of {{Zombie Advocate}}s for one team or the other is limited [[spoiler:to one man whose wife turned out to be a vampire who was killed in the purge]].

* TheWoobie: Selene. It's obvious that the sheer amount of personal loss and emotional trauma she's experienced has finally caught up her, with her dissolving into tears on several occasions. By ''Blood Wars'', she's had her parents, sister and nieces killed, found out that her replacement father figure has been lying to her centuries, murdered her family and framed Lycans for it (so it's turns out all those Lycans she killed were not justified deaths), she's lost her lover and her daughter and is regarded as a traitor by the vast majority of Vampires.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The first three films have decent CG mixed with animatronics. The fourth on the other hand... To put it lightly, looks like a UsefulNotes/{{PS3}} game. One stand out is during the van chase, where a group of rubbery-looking Lycans attack the main characters.

** ''Blood Wars'' tends to be viewed as the weakest of the sequels (to the point it may have been a FranchiseKiller), as despite trying to return to the franchise's FurVSFang roots, many viewers disliked the movie retconning or forgetting major plot developments (such as the BrokenMasquerade and the lycans having justified grievances against the vampires), dropping a bridge on [[spoiler:Michael]] and introducing a glut of new, uninteresting characters who just took screentime away from the characters the audience already knew and cared about.

** ''Blood Wars'' tends to be viewed as the weakest of the sequels (to the point it may have been a FranchiseKiller), as despite trying to return to the franchise's FurVersusFang roots, many viewers disliked the movie retconning or forgetting major plot developments (such as the BrokenMasquerade and the lycans having justified grievances against the vampires), dropping a bridge on [[spoiler:Michael]] and introducing a glut of new, uninteresting characters who just took screentime away from the characters the audience already knew and cared about.

* EvilIsSexy: Marcus shows up in ''Evolution'' as a YoungerAndHipper Elder than Viktor, with his OneWingedAngel form having xylophone abs, and even his regular one seeing him walking around shirtless under an open trenchcoat.

* {{Sequelitis}}: ''Evolution'', considered by many fans to be a major step down in quality from the original.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: ''Awakening'' to the previous two films. Even the critics, who usually butcher this film series, agreed.

** All the most interesting parts about TheUnmasquedWorld of ''Awakening'' were barely touched on. Questions such as "Who discovered the two races and how?" and "What was the immediate reaction of Humanity" were unaddressed. Even the concept of a group of {{Zombie Advocate}}s for one team or the other is limited [[spoiler: to one man whose wife turned out to be a vampire who was killed in the purge]].

* HesJustHiding: Many fans like to think that Erika (and perhaps some BitCharacter vampires from the first film like Mason, Dmitri, Duncan, and Zzusa) left Viktor's mansion before Marcus razes it in the sequel.

* HesJustHiding: Many fans like to think that Erika (and perhaps some other minor vampire characters from the first film) left Viktor's mansion before Marcus razes it in the sequel.

** Erika and David have their fans as well, partially due to being played by Creator/SophiaMyles and Creator/TheoJames, respectively. Erika's interesting dynamics with Kraven and Selene and cat-like reaction to finding out Michael is a Lycan helps a lot, as does Thomas's pleasant idealism and secret [[spoiler:RoyalBlood]].

** Even though she only appeared in two scenes, Amelia is very popular, mostly for being a gorgeous LadyOfWar OneSceneWonder.
** Raze, for being a ''huge'' ScaryBlackMan and NobleTopEnforcer with a baritone.

** Pretty much any time Kraven's onscreen - his actor (Shane Brolly, who's Irish) had a ''nasty'' case of OohMeAccentsSlipping and seemed determined to overact in every single scene. Reception to Brolly's portrayal was almost universally negative.

* RonTheDeathEater: Selene's worst moments are often held against her by detractors, even to the point of painting her as an outright VillainProtagonist! These moments include being a ferocious Lycan hunter in the first film, and slaughtering humans in ''Awakening''. The whole point of her character development in the first is that she realises she's been conditioned and manipulated by Viktor her entire life (having believed Lycans killed her entire family) and what a corrupt cult she's grown up in - and physically rejecting that out of love for another being. The humans she kills in ''Awakening'' were actively trying to kill ''her''.

** The very next year, Kate Beckinsale would star in ''Film/VanHelsing'', this time playing a vampire ''hunter''. And her love interest again ends up turning into a werewolf! Len Wiseman almost didn't even offer it to her because she had just done ''Underworld'' (but of course she signed on immediately).

** Theo James served as a protector of [[Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager India Eisley]]. A few years later, he would also be the [[Film/{{Divergent}} love interest/protector]] of another [[Creator/ShaileneWoodley Secret Life alum]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: [[Series/GameOfThrones Tywin Lannister]] is a vampire, [[Series/DowntonAbbey Kemal Pamuk]] is his son and [[Film/VanHelsing Anna Valerious]] is a vampire instead of a vampire hunter!

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Happens on occasion, given how many characters don't transition from one movie to another. An interesting example is Amelia, the reigning elder of the Vampire coven, who remains offscreen for most of the movie, with her policies and decisions in the vampire-lycan war remaining unclear, when she could have been a {{Foil}} to Kraven and when she does appear [[spoiler: being struck down without a fight by Raze in an ambush]], when at least a fight between them would have been interesting. This seems to be realized retroactively when she's given an action scene in the second film's prologue, and a significant role in the backstory of ''Blood Wars''.

** Bill Nighy is actually a good actor. Viktor, however, is [[LargeHam the hammiest character]] in an ''extremely'' [[WorldOfHam hammy franchise]].

* JustHereForGodzilla: Or rather, Just Here For Kate Beckinsale. A lot of movie-goers freely admit that she's more or less the sole reason they continued to watch the films after the second one.

** Raze, for being a ''huge'' ScaryBlackMan and NobleTopEnforcer with a BadassBaritone.

** Creator/MichaelSheen played a werewolf fighting against vampires in this franchise. [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Then he became a vampire fighting werewolves...]]

** Lucian, due to his sympathetic backstory and Martin Sheen's excellent performance.

** Raze, for being a ''huge'' ScaryBlackMan with a BadassBaritone.