Underworld (2003) / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation: Selene maintains that she was only interested in Michael at first because she found it odd how the Lycans would follow a human besides for food, while Kraven automatically jumps to her being "infatuated" with him. Selene does share a Held Gaze with Michael before the shootout, suggesting maybe she did find him attractive and took notice of him because of that. But she doesn't actually start to warm to him until he goes out of his way to save her, and afterwards is much softer towards him. So was her interest purely for the mission and then grew to love once he was good to her? And since she is affection-starved with Viktor slumbering, did she latch onto the first person who was kind to her like he was?
Best Known for the Fanservice:
- The franchise itself is remembered primarily because Kate Beckinsale's default outfit is a Spy Catsuit.
- The most remembered scene of Evolution is when Selene and Michael finally have sex. It's admittedly remembered for Anatomically Impossible Sex, where Michael appears to be humping Selene's belly button but the novelty of seeing Kate Beckinsale in such a scene means it endures in memory - even if at her request, it's full of fades and dissolves to avoid showing her fully nude.
Catharsis Factor: After everything he does and all the deaths and tragedy he's responsible for, seeing Viktor get killed by Selene is awesome and incredibly satisfying.
Complete Monster:
- Original film & Evolution: Kraven, the supposed hero to the vampire covens, is a 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.
- Awakening: Dr. Jacob Lane is the director of Antigen and the man responsible for the near extinction of the vampire and Lycan races, despite being a Lycan himself. Desiring the power of the Corvinus Strain, Lane holds Selene and her daughter Eve in captivity for twelve years, treating the latter as his personal lab rat and going out of his way to dehumanize her as much as possible. When Selene and Eve escape, Lane sends his Lycans to the coven they take refuge in, resulting in many vampires being slaughtered, and Eve abducted with the intent to vivisect her for her genetic material to make himself and the remaining Lycans immune to silver so that they can wipe out the vampires once and for all, having Eve's caretaker killed when she protests.
Critical Dissonance: The films have received largely mixed to negative reviews from critics, but audiences have overall responded more positively.
Contested Sequel: Rise of the Lycans. Some fans hated the film as, due to its nature as a prequel, the story shifted away from that of the romance between Selene and Michael. Some fans enjoyed the film precisely because of this.
Designated Villain: The lycans become this in Awakening and Blood Wars. The Reveal 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 Slave Race fighting for their freedom. Evolution would show that the original werewolves were a truly dangerous threat that the vampires fought in order to protect humanity, but Rise of the Lycans would establish that the lycans are a different breed to those creatures and retain their intelligence. 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 the new coven leader after defeating a lycan army.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Even though she only appeared in two scenes, Amelia is very popular, mostly for being a gorgeous Lady of War One-Scene Wonder. Fans keep clamouring for her to get a solo movie.
- Raze, for being a huge Scary Black Man and Noble Top Enforcer with a baritone. Being played by the man who wrote the film helps as well.
- Erika and David have a huge fanbase as well despite being introduced in secondary roles. This is partially due to them being played by Sophia Myles and Theo James, 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 Royal Blood.
- Luka, the handmaiden from the third movie, has few scenes and even fewer lines but commands a lot of interest due to her Undying Loyalty to Sonja.
Evil Is Cool:
- Lucian, due to his sympathetic backstory and Michael Sheen's excellent performance.
- Viktor also has his fans who like him for how hammy and formidable he is.
Fandom Rivalry: Downplayed. While there isn't much outright hostility with the Resident Evil Film Series fandom, Selene vs Alice is a common Hypothetical Fight Debate, due to both being badass Action Girl protagonists of horror-adjacent franchises beginning in the early 2000s.
First Installment Wins: 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.
Friendly Fandoms: With I, Frankenstein, since Kevin Grevioux both created and acted in the films.
Genius Bonus: The Corvinus clan, the original patriarchs of the Vampire race, are named after the 15th-century Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. If you know your vampire lore better than most, you might know that Matthias Corvinus was a contemporary and political rival of Vlad Tepes, the historical figure that Stoker's Count Dracula was based on and named after. ^note Naming the founder of the Vampire race "Corvinus" is a subtle Shout-Out to the most famous vampire in all of fiction.
Ham and Cheese:
- Bill Nighy is actually a good actor. Viktor, however, is the hammiest character in an extremely hammy franchise. Rise of the Lycans is supposed to be a prequel and yet he's at his hammiest, giving the impression that Viktor mellowed out through the years.
- The same goes for Charles Dance in Awakening.
He's Just Hiding:
- Many fans like to think that Erika (and perhaps some Bit Character vampires from the first film like Mason, Dmitri, Duncan, and Zzusa) left Viktor's mansion before Marcus razes it in the sequel.
- Sonja's handmaiden Luka is MIA after the final battle in Rise of the Lycans, but many fans like to think that, even if she does die there in the novel, her film and comic counterparts were able to avoid the bloodbath.
Ho Yay:
- Lucian and Kraven snipe at each other Like an Old Married Couple, and Lucian says the line "I bled for you once" rather like a spurned lover.
- Kraven seems especially close to Soren.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The very next year, Kate Beckinsale would star in Van Helsing, this time playing a vampire hunter. And her love interest again ends up turning into a werewolf! Stephen Sommers almost didn't even offer it to her because she had just done Underworld (but of course she signed on immediately).
- Michael Sheen played a Werewolf fighting against Vampires in this franchise. Then he became a Vampire fighting Werewolves...
- Also related to Twilight; in the first film, Lucian tells a shirtless Werewolf named Taylor to put some clothes on.
- Theo James served as a protector of India Eisley. A few years later, he would also be the love interest/protector of another Secret Life alum. Not to mention that the first film was a Whole-Plot Reference to Romeo and Juliet, and India Eisley is the daughter of one of the most famous Juliets.
- Years after their appearances in Underworld, Bill Nighy and Tony Curran appeared in the Doctor Who episode "Vincent and the Doctor", with Nighy playing an art historian and Curran playing Vincent van Gogh; in contrast to Victor's and Markus'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 Lost Girl.
- Markus's actor Tony Curran played a pure-blooded Vampire in Blade II.
- Stephen Rea plays a doctor who experiments on vampires and werewolves. He had played a werewolf himself in The Company of Wolves and a vampire in Interview with the Vampire.
- Rhona Mitra plays Sonja in Rise of the Lycans, who Selene was specifically said to be a Replacement Goldfish for. Already resembling Kate Beckinsale quite a lot, she would then play a character very like Selene in Doomsday - a humourless Action Girl, unlike Sonja's Lady of War persona, complete with the backstory of being an orphan and Selene's low-maintenance bob hairstyle.
Iron Woobie:
- Selene has been through a Trauma Conga Line 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 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.
- Lucian as well, considering he was Forced to Watch as the woman he loved was killed by her own father while pregnant with his child, and that's what started the war. He too rarely angsts about it.
Just Here for Godzilla: 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 Action Girl, she has a sizable collection of fans who love her rich backstory and character development between the first two films especially.
Magnificent Bastard: Lucian, the first Lycan to ever be able to retain human form and intellect, fell in love with Sonja, daughter of the vampire overlord Viktor. After her execution by her own father along with their unborn child, Lucian rallies the Lycans to victory and devastates the vampire covens. Knowing he cannot defeat the vampires himself, Lucian fakes his own death by using the vampire Kraven as a cover, going underground to rebuild the Lycans while kidnapping descendants of the first immortal Corvinus to experiment on while aiming to make himself a powerful hybrid between vampire and werewolf. Coordinating the elimination of the vampire elder Amelia, Lucian finally obtains a perfect specimen in Michael Corvin, and even when mortally wounded leaves heroine Selene the way to turn Michael into a hybrid, gloating even to the treacherous Kraven that his will is done regardless of his fate.
Moment of Awesome: When Viktor heads off to kill the 'Abomination', Michael, the newly-transformed hybrid emerges, and as Viktor and he stare each other down, Michael SHOVES Viktor, sending him flying back.
Moral Event Horizon: Viktor in Rise Of The Lycans shows just how firm his anti-Lycan fundamentalism is when 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 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?
Narm:
- The massacre of Amelia's entourage is a little hard to take too seriously because the supposedly all-powerful Elder is killed so easily, without even putting up any kind of fight. Evolution would attempt to remedy this by showing her in battle in a flashback.
- "You betrayed me! To be with an A-NI-MAL!"
- Pretty much any time Kraven's onscreen - his actor (Shane Brolly, who's Irish) had a nasty case of Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping 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 Game Face looks more like a girl hamming up Halloween makeup.
Nightmare Fuel:
- In Rise of the Lycans, during the outbreak of the Lycan slaves. Where some of those rather large ballista bolts landed could be a little on the squick side for some.
- The pathetic, helpless squeal/gurgle that the tunnel Lycan in Awakening makes before his head is ripped in half by Eve is the stuff of nightmares.
- Evolution revealing that the first generation of Lycans carried a strain so potent, it could even reanimate the dead.
Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading:
- Selene's feelings for Michael are somewhat in doubt, with even Word of God saying they're not properly in love. Her scenes with Kahn show lots more chemistry, as he appears to be her Only Friend, and he's the only character she shows warmth to.
- Selene also has many scenes with Erika, with dashings of Les Yay that can make them look like Fire-Forged Friends. Erika's even the one who breaks her out of the mansion.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Tywin Lannister is a vampire, Kemal Pamuk is his son and Anna Valerious is a vampire instead of a vampire hunter!
- Rise of the Lycans has Craig Parker in a small role. While he was known as Haldir in The Lord of the Rings, he'd become better known as Glaber from Spartacus: Blood and Sand in just one year.
Ron the Death Eater: Selene's worst moments are often held against her by detractors, even to the point of painting her as an outright Villain Protagonist! 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. Not to mention, one of her first acts in Evolution is to try and get Michael to drink manufactured blood to stop him from potentially attacking humans.
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.
- Evolution is seen by many fans as a major step down in quality from Underworld due to its blander and more convoluted plot, with Marcus and William also being viewed as a less compelling and less entertaining villains compared to Lucian and Viktor.
- Rise of the Lycans is viewed as a serviceable but ultimately pointless prequel that doesn't reveal anything new about the plot and setting that wasn't already explained in the first movie, although Michael Sheen's performance is often as praised.
- 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 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 Franchise Killer), as despite trying to return to the franchise's Fur Against Fang roots, many viewers disliked the movie retconning or forgetting major plot developments (such as the Broken Masquerade and the Lycans having justified grievances against the Vampires), dropping a bridge on Michael and introducing a glut of new, uninteresting characters who just took screentime away from the characters the audience already knew and cared about.
Strangled by the Red String: 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. Word of God 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.
Special Effects Failure: The first three films have decent CG mixed with animatronics. The fourth on the other hand... To put it lightly, looks like a PS3 game. One stand out is during the van chase, where a group of rubbery-looking Lycans attack the main characters.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Awakening got a better reception compared to the previous two films. Even the critics, who usually butcher this film series, agreed.
Tear Jerker:
- Selene's backstory when she reveals it to Michael; she lost her entire family in one evening, including her young nieces, and became a vampire because she thought Viktor had saved her from the same fate. She's hunted Lycans for centuries because of it. The way she details this...you get the feeling she's never spoken about it before.
- To say nothing of Selene discovering that Viktor not only had his own daughter killed but he was the one who slaughtered her family. The steely ice-cold assassin becomes a traumatized young woman again as she processes this.
- The death of Sonja is surprisingly touching.
- Lucian's retelling of Sonja's death to Michael is also very sad, and really makes you feel for the guy.
- Selene's state through most of Blood Wars. Having lost literally everyone important to her at this point, ruthlessly hunted by both sides of the war. And just when it seems like she's been given a new purpose in life, she's ruthlessly betrayed and is forced to watch as her new disciples are gunned down mercilessly.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- 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 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.
- While a sequel wasn't guaranteed when they made the first, the Sequel Hook at the end indicates they saw potential for a continuation, making it a shame that the likes of Kahn and Raze get killed when the vampires storm the underground, since their deaths could easily have been given to Mooks and they could have played a part in the second film. With Selene now an outlaw, it would be interesting to see Raze become a reluctant ally and Kahn become conflicted as to whether he could support her. Naturally, they brought Raze back for Rise of the Lycans.
- Erika never factors into the story in the second film, being implied to die when Marcus razes the mansion, and there's no payoff to her betrayal of Kraven.
- For all the hype surrounding Michael as the Living MacGuffin of the first film, he actually does surprisingly little once he's infected with both vampire and werewolf venom. While he does help Selene win the big fight in the climax, and provide Viktor with a formidable enemy to distract him long enough for Selene to kill him, come Evolution he ends up increasingly Out of Focus, spending a good chunk of the third act mistaken for dead. By the time of Awakening, due to Scott Speedman leaving the franchise, he's Put on a Bus and the emphasis is placed on Eve instead. Come Blood Wars, he's revealed to have been killed.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- 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 seemingly forgotten and with the exception of the prequel, lycans are almost exclusively treated as the villains.
- Not only is 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 The Unmasqued World 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 Advocates for one team or the other is limited to one man whose wife turned out to be a vampire who was killed in the purge.
Took the Bad Film Seriously:
- 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.
- While the first film's 'badness' is up for debate, Kate Beckinsale puts her classical training to good use in imbuing Selene with a lot of pathos; realistically portraying a traumatised young woman discovering she was radicalized.
Unintentional Period Piece: The film seems to have been conceived (in part) as a modern update on the old Universal Horror films of the 1930s and 1940s. So instead of black velvet evening gowns and spooky organs, it featured a whole cast of characters in Matrix-inspired black latex trench coats, and its soundtrack prominently featured Evanescence's Amy Lee just as she was becoming a goth icon. It still maintains a pretty loyal cult following (there's a reason it spawned four sequels, after all), but most of what made it seem "modern" in 2003 now makes it seem nearly as dated as the old-fashioned horror films that it was updating.
The Woobie: Selene. It's obvious that the sheer amount of personal loss and emotional trauma she's experienced has finally caught up with 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 for centuries, murdered her family, and framed Lycans for it (so it 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.

YMMV / Underworld (2003)

Edit Locked