IMDB described the movie “Underworld” by saying
Underworld reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city’s underbelly. The balance of power is upset when a beautiful young Vampire and a nascent Lycan # deadly rivals for centuries # fall in love.
While I agree in part with that description it isnt entirely how I would have phrased it. Underworld isnt a reimagination of the genre as such, it’s a “what if” based on the period drama vampire stories; it says, “what if time has passed, where would the decadent aristocratic 18th/19th century Eastern European vampires be today?” Underworld applies what we know of history to the older vampire myth and carries it forward in a fairly logical way.
One reviewer thought a major drawback of the film was its dense information content. They were obviously looking for it to be the standard Hollywood fair, devoid of substance. On the other hand, we went to see the movie and were pleasantly surprised with the rich backstory and character histories. The motivations for the characters were well formed and the “bad guy” (for once) wasnt the unredeamable black-hearted monster that Hollywood prefers, he had depth and you find out he’s not so much evil as just in opposition to the main characters. Characters you thought were bad turn out to not be, good guys turn out to be bad, and a genuinely codepentent situation that causes trouble for other people.