Underworld: Evolution (DVD, 2006, Special Edition, Widescreen Edition)

Better action, a bit of sex, and gorier R-rated violence make Underworld: Evolution a reasonably satisfying sequel to 2003's surprise hit Underworld. Looking stunning as ever in her black leather battle gear, Kate Beckinsale is every goth guy's fantasy as Selene, the vampire "death dealer" who's now fighting to stop the release of the original "Lycan" werewolf, William (Brian Steele) from the prison that's held him for centuries. As we learn from the film's action-packed prologue, William and his brother Marcus (Tony Curran) began the bloodline of vampires and werewolves, and after witnessing centuries of warfare between them, their immortal father Corvinus (Derek Jacobi) now seeks Selene and the human vampire/lycan hybrid Michael (Scott Speedman) to put an end to the war perpetuated by Victor (Bill Nighy), the vampire warrior whose betrayal of Selene turns Underworld: Evolution into an epic tale of familial revenge. This ambitious attempt at Shakespearean horror is compromised by a script (by Danny McBride and returning director Len Wiseman, Beckinsale's real-life husband) that's more confusing than it needs to be, with too many characters and not enough storytelling detail to flesh them all out. Aspiring to greatness and falling well short of that goal, Underworld: Evolution succeeds instead as a full-throttle action/horror thriller, with enough swordplay, gunplay, and CGI monsters to justify the continuation of the Underworld franchise. If you're an established fan, this is a must-see movie; if not, well... at least it's better than Van Helsing!

To start off, let me say that I'm a very big fan of the original. I think it did everything right; having a nice Gothic overtone, great characters, an original, intriguing and in-depth plot, fun action and an overall script that never once felt dull. Oh, and of course...it had Kate Beckinsale in tight leather, hehehe. Now does this sequel contain all these qualities that made the original so good? Personally, I'd have to say no, I don't think it did. Was the movie necessarily bad? Also no. It was highly entertaining but not that good of a movie overall.

STORYLINE: The story in this film was no where near as good or developed as the original. As it starts off with a war scene in the past, I found myself really enjoying it. We find out a little about the Corvinus family and the origins or Marcus, who was the very first vampire, and his brother, who was the very first Lycan. But after we witness these scenes and learn these few minor plot details, the story development pretty much comes to a dead stop. Honestly, nothing really happens in this movie. It's all just action and really nothing more.

CHARACTERS: The lead characters were good. Selene and Michael didn't exactly have any development but that's okay because they were developed enough in the first film. But what was slightly developed was their romance, which the first film seemed to be lacking. We really got to feel the connection between them and how much they really cared for each other. And it was great to see Michael show off his new hybrid abilities and kick some booty along the way. He was a lot cooler in this film than in the original. The new vampire leader, Marcus, was also pretty damn cool. He had a very sinister appearance, especially with the devil-like wings, and didn't seem to have any sympathy at all as he brutally disposed of anyone who got in his way. In the original, we had Lucian, who was a well developed bad-guy character and I actually found myself caring for him. Marcus, on the other hand, didn't strike a cord with me at all. He looked cool, sure, but besides that, he had absolutely nothing going for him and I really didn't care what happened to him. All the other characters in this film were also very undeveloped as well. We really knew nothing of them and as a result, felt unsure whether we should like them or hate them. So that's a major issue.

ACTION: The action, most the time, was very enjoyable. And I stress MOST of the time, not ALL of the time. There was some really fun action and fight sequences and a nice amount of blood and gore thrown into the mix. So it definitely does manage to entertain the action buffs. But then, at times, the action began to feel annoying as it got extremely repetitive. It was like they just kept replaying the same action scene over and over and just tweaked it a little in order to pass it off as a different scene. This was a problem because the whole movie seemed to base itself on action, rather than story, and the action wasn't even all that good.

ATMOSPHERE: Another good thing about this movie would have to be the scenery. Yeah, I know that's not really important in the movie, but it really did help with the overall experience. There were beautiful mountain landscapes, snowy woods, old style castles in ruins and gorgeous red colored twilight skies. So I think it actually helped a lot in setting the atmosphere and gets points for great eye candy.

The Movie is great, a worthy (if not a better) sequel to the first, Kate Beckinsale at her best (and hotter than ever...). Action scenes, although Matrix-like, as it was with the first film, don't dissapoint. CGI are superb, and the general acting makes you thing indeed these characters are not human.
The DVD itself: Single Widescreen (2.40:1) Special Edition, mastered in HD, English & French DD 5.1, with equal subs (Closed-Captioned), superb picture & sound in general, given the thought that this is a very dark movie (picture-wise), and has a LOT of gunfiring. The only thing lacking is a DTS Stream.
About the extra's: A LOT of them. The Disk is a monster 7,92 GB Dual-Layer, the movie is 107 mins, and that leaves a lot of space for the featurettes. Also there are a lot of other movie previous (Official Trailers).
And last (but not least) there is a Collectible Comic-Strip, which is a superb, almost 48-pages short adaptation of the movie itself, with the same Blood & Gore, with beautiful full-colored drawings.
A True Collector's Edition. Buy & Enjoy!

Underworld is a great movie from numerous perspectives. It has a good plot even though its rehashing monsters seen in previous films. Underworld creates its own history for these creatures and its own turmoil betweent them. Fortunately in Under world a much better job is done of pitting monster against monster than in films like Alien Vs Predator where there's no dialog or character development. In Underworld you get to know the characters and over the course of the film the truth behind why the war rages on is revealed and the darkest of secrets are uncovered. This is also a great romance or date movie as far as I'm concerned. The two main characters Selene and Michael played respectively by Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman are tragic lovers driven apart by a secret war that has been raging for centuries. Though their love is forbidden fruit they quickly discover that they are each other's last hope in a crazy world of violence and death. No matter how dark it becomes love triumphs in the end.

Underworld Evolution, this movie from kept my attention from the beginning to the end. Intense special effects and a well researched story line, you can tell the writers were into the old vampire and werewolf legends and added a surprising twist of their own. Kate Beckinsale played a very passionate "Death Dealer", willing to do anything needed to complete her Job in protecting the coven and destroying the Liken . The action is smooth-running with just enough slowness to elaborate on the the high intensity points. If you like stories about vampires and werewolf's, then I know you will find this movie worth having in your library. I will also suggest that you should see the first one and watch them in tandem to help keep up with the fast storieline.