Underworld Evolution Year: 2006 Director: Len Wiseman Written by: Danny McBride Threat: Vampires Weapon of Choice: Hand Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Underworld

The tyranist's thoughts
One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get to the theatre more often this year than last. Here I am over half way through January and I'm just barely getting to the theatre for the first time this year. Still, it's already better than last year. New Year's Resolution aside, I would have found a way to get to the theatre for this one anyway. Kate Beckinsale is one of the few actors that I absolutely cannot say no to.
Picking up more or less where the last film left off, we catch up with Selene and Michael just as lots of people are trying to hunt them down. This time, they've pissed off someone even more powerful and even more ruthless. Lots of fighting ensues.
I really liked this movie. The world it is set in, the action, the pacing, the actors, the script, the idea. I like it all. It isn't a perfect movie, but it is very watchable and one that I will likely own and watch again and again.
Kate Beckinsale's reprisal of her character is just as good as it was the first time around. Scott Speedman is still minorly annoying, but he isn't the main character and so I can forgive him. The rest of the cast blends well, especially Derek Jacobi. And might I add that Bill Nighy has to be the strangest man alive?
The effects are almost all practical and the movie is far better for it. The werewolves look fantastic and except for a couple transformations are pretty close to being ideal. I wish everyone went for the practical effects more often.
I do get the impression that Len Wiseman is in awe of his wife's body. I can't blame him. I feel some of that same awe myself. He's a lucky man, but he didn't really need to rub our noses in it like that did he?
Go see this one. Unless you hated the original. If that's the case, then there really isn't anything here for you. But if you liked the original, this is more of the same and I recommend it.
Posted: January 21, 2006

Rish's Reviews
I'm in agreement with tyranist on this one. I too adore Kate Beckinsale, and really love the first movie. I went into that one with very low expectations, and there was really no way I was going to be able to do that again. Luckily, when the film came out last week, it was not screened for critics (which usually means they know the reviews will be bad), and was described in the one semi-review I read as "another mediocre action movie with a brainless starlet in the lead."
Thanks to those little pushes, I was able to lower my expectations just a bit when I finally got to go out and see it tonight. And the movie was all the better for it.
In fact, they managed to overcome one of the few flaws I found in the original (that of non-American characters arbitrarily being made American, with uneven results). I was happy they didn't fill the movie with techno songs and rapid-fire editing. I enjoyed the violence and splatter (nice death by helicopter blade) and that they didn't feel like they had to empussify it to get a PG-13 rating. And I liked that in the fight sequences, even though it was dark, you always knew who was fighting who. And I didn't mind Scott Speedman at all in this one (even though the name will forever be funny to me).
We got a bit of emotion from our heroine (something sorely lacking in 90% of ass-kicking action babes) and a teeny bit of vulnerability. I felt our characters were actually in danger from time to time. I suppose tyranist is right if he's talking about the semi-gratuitious love scene. But I ain't complaining. In fact, I could've done with a smidge more love overall.*
Oh, and more Bill Nighy. Though I guess I have Pirates 2 to look forward to for that.
The design and makeup for the character of Marcus was one of the coolest I've seen (great stuff), and William was probably the second-best werewolf I've ever seen on film (after Rick Baker's, of course). I know there was CGI used, but either it was used sparingly, or so well done that sometimes I couldn't tell what was a man in a suit, what was an anamatronic, and what was computer-generated.
I also really enjoy the mythos and universe created by Wiseman and McBride--the rules, the setting, the technology, and the history. We get even more of that in this one, including a bunch of flashbacks to long before the first movie (which, nicely enough, allows almost all the characters who died the first time around to show up again). I like that it remained faithful to the story of the original, while "retconning" in a new backstory that allows us to continue the action and introduce new villains far more powerful than those we saw in Underworld.
I was damned impressed by Underworld Evolution (in fact, I'd say I liked it more than my pal tyranist did, which doesn't often happen). I only hope that Mr. Wiseman and the lovely Mrs. Wiseman resist the urge to make a second sequel. Not only do I not know where they could go, but it seems to me that the only direction open to them . . . is down.
I'd Recommend It To: Anyone who enjoyed the original.
*Then again, I am a lonely, lonely boy.
Posted: January 26, 2006

Total Skulls: 17

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?