"Romeo and Juliet meets Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr." Of course, there is a bit more to "Underworld" but its a fairly shrewd assessment. Part of Underworld is a blooming love between a Vampire and a Human. But things get complicated when the Human is bitten by a Werewolf and...

O.K. Here's the gist: Vampires and Lycans (werewolves) have been fighting a centuries-old secret war. Humans have no idea that these creatures exist. (Note: You have to take the premise with a grain of salt)

Vampire "Death Dealers" have hunted the werewolves to the brink of extinction or so they confidently believe. As the story begins, Selene and two accomplices have been tracking two werewolves through the rain soaked streets of an "unnamed" city. The werewolves are on the hunt. Selene foils their unknown scheme in a bullet-spraying sequence reminiscent of "The Matrix". The werewolves have somehow laid their hands on a new irradiated bullet that can kill a vampire in a few seconds. Very disheartening news for the vampire clans.

Ah, but things quickly go from bad to worse. The Death Dealers like to take werewolves prisoner for interrogation. As Selene tracks one of the werewolves, hopefully back to his lair, she happens upon a rather large gathering of werewolves. She cannot get close enough to actually see their exact numbers. Selene's lack of verifiable proof also does not bode well for her fellow vampires as the leader, Kraven, does not believe her.

Selene does a little research and comes upon a hypothesis: the Lycans were actually on the hunt for one particular Human, Michael Corvin. She heads out in search of Corvin in hopes of learning what the Lycans are after. Selene's searches leads her to the conclusion that a long-thought dead Lycan, Lucian, is actually still alive and is possibly in league with Kraven.

To complete the complicated plot line, Selene pulls her trump card. She secretly awakens Viktor, one of the Ancients. The Ancients are 3 very powerful, very old vampires. They share power and immortality by ruling the vampire clans for a century, and then sleeping, in a kind of suspended animation, for two. Its sort of "rule by tag team".