The Underworld franchise would be a guilty pleasure of mine if I believed in guilty pleasures. However, I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you like something, you should never feel guilty about it. So, with that said, the Underworld franchise is a lot of fun. Who honestly doesn’t love vampires with guns fighting werewolves? In 2016, the fifth movie in the franchise, Underworld: Blood Wars, was released. It continues the story of Selene, a former Death Dealer with enemies on both sides of the war.
Series creator Len Wiseman has been teasing new movies in the franchise, a reboot, or a TV series, even without Kate Beckinsale returning as Selene. However, nothing has been confirmed since the release of the last film. With no new Underworld movies in the pipeline, here is a look at my ranking of Underworld movies, from worst to first.
5. Underworld: Awakening (2012)
Easily, the worst movie in the franchise is Underworld: Awakening. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth watching, just that it has a lot of problems. Selene and Michael were captured in the prologue of this movie, and when it officially starts, someone helps her escape. When she begins to see through someone else’s eyes and thinks it’s Michael, she sets off to find him. However, it isn’t Michael but a young girl named Eve, who is Selene’s daughter and a hybrid.
What makes this movie not work is that the entire setup is that the human population of the world has discovered the existence of vampires and lycans. This is thanks to the death of Corvinus in Underworld: Evolution. He spent his life trying to conceal the existence of the monsters to protect their own. Because it wasn’t vampires vs. werewolves, it felt lackluster until a twist towards the end. The big problem is that the twist came, and the movie ended very quickly with little to no tension. This is the only movie where I didn’t feel any fear for the safety of the heroes.
Plus, there was no explanation for why they were no longer in Europe. However, it makes sense that they would send them to America when they were captured).
4. Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)
I liked Underworld: Blood Wars, and honestly, Awakening was the only movie I didn’t care for. However, I had a significant problem with how this movie handled Michael. In the first two movies, a lot was done to show how special Michael was, and then he became essential to find in the fourth movie. However, here he was just dismissed as if he meant nothing outside of a central plot point for the movie’s villain.
Speaking of the villain, I liked Marius because he was so much like Lucian, but he did enough to show that Lucian was – at heart – a good person and werewolf. At the same time, Marius was a disciplinarian and was a total bad guy in this movie. I feel it tried to do a little too much, especially with the secondary villain, Semira.
While I didn’t like the way the movie dismissed Michael, I do like David – the “last pure blood.” Most of all, I loved the vampires fighting werewolves again. Underworld: Blood Wars also brought back many elements from the original movie, with references to Viktor and the elders, which I appreciated.
3. Underworld: Evolution (2006)
Ask me on any given day, and this might flip-flop with Rise of the Lycans. This is an immediate follow-up to the first movie and begins immediately after the first one ends. Selene just killed Viktor, and Marcus rose from his tomb to exact vengeance on the vampires in his coven that ruined everything and wreaked havoc on the world. Marcus, the first vampire, also heads out to find and rescue his brother William, the first werewolf, and it is up to Selene and Michael to stop them.
What I loved most about Underworld: Evolution was the world-building. I loved learning about the first immortal Corvinus, as well as much of the history of the wars and why humans didn’t know about vampires and werewolves despite having gunfights in public places. Then, there was the final battle, with Selene and Michael taking on Marcus and William, along with a host of Corvinus’ soldiers. This battle was awesome.
2. Rise of the Lycans (2009)
I know a lot of people dismissed Rise of the Lycans because it didn’t involve Selene. I don’t mind because I liked Lucian more than Selene in that first movie. Michael Sheen is fantastic in this role as the leader of the werewolves, and we see here why he was a good and loyal leader despite all the killing going on around him. This was truly a Romeo and Juliet story, with Lucian falling in love with Sonja, Viktor’s daughter, and their passion sparking the start of the war.
What drags this movie down are the special effects, which are far below the level of any other film in the franchise. Honestly, the werewolves in this movie looked terrible. However, this has one of the best stories of the entire Underworld franchise.
1. Underworld (2003)
The first Underworld movie is still the best. There is little setup here because the entire film starts with Selene and her fellow Death Dealers heading into a giant gun battle with werewolves in a subway tunnel. Honestly, who went into the movie expecting werewolves and vampires fighting and expected to see giant gun battles? This just kicked off a thrill ride that had some minor problems but was still an enjoyable experience.
The highlight was easily Michael Sheen as Lucian, a fantastic character who was the leader of the werewolves and turned out to be more sympathetic than any vampire in Selene’s coven. As for Selene, I still insist that she was too naïve and made too many bad decisions throughout the franchise. If she is supposed to be one of the best Death Dealers, she should have had a lot more common sense than she does. Instead, she allows things to happen to her instead of leading the plot with her actions.
However, that is a minor complaint. This is only slightly about the story – which was solid when it comes to the setup and backstory leading to these events – and is mostly about gun fights, werewolves transforming and biting people’s heads off, and just fantastic action from start to finish. I still watch Underworld to this day, anytime it’s on, and I enjoy it as much as I did when I first saw it years ago.
