Critical Reception
The film showed positive reception from audiences, but critics generally gave Underworld negative reviews. As of January 2012, it has a 31% overall approval rating on film-critics' aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes based on 157 reviews. Roger Ebert said, "This is a movie so paltry in its characters and shallow in its story that the war seems to exist primarily to provide graphic visuals". However, some critics were more favorable: the New York Daily News praised it as being "stylish and cruel, and mightily entertaining for certain covens out there".
Salon reviewer Andrew O'Hehir gave mixed criticism and praise, stating, "y any reasonable standard, this dark vampire epic — all massive overacting, cologne-commercial design and sexy cat suits — sucks". But O'Hehir also remarks that, "...at least it gives a crap", conceding that despite the movie's flaws, the complex vampire-werewolf mythology back-story "has been meticulously worked out".
Read more about this topic: Underworld (2003 film)
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