Well, I did see ‘Underworld: Evolution’ and it is a worthy successor to the first, though with some of the familiar mistakes of sequels. The main problem is that the plot is horribly convoluted. The first movie had a fairly stripped down plot which revolved around hybridity between vampires and werewolves. This second movie introduces two additional kinds of hybridity. A complicated and incoherent plot is not necessarily a problem because you don’t go see this kind of movie for the plot (what is the Bill Hicks line about porn films? “I don’t think acting and plot can carry these movies, folks; I’d leave in those fucking scenesâ€), but an awful lot of exposition is needed to explain every twist, each accompanied by poor Kate Beckinsale looking horrified yet determined. There are also too many flashbacks. It helps to have seen the first movie.
That said, the action sequences are still good, and the final half hour battle redeems the entire movie. Humans, Lycans, vampires, a couple of new species, a helicopter crash, a half-drowned castle, and automatic weapons: it just doesn’t get much better than that. Also, without investing too much seriousness in a silly movie, the functions of blood get much more interesting in the sequel. It transfers powers and speeds up evolution, but it also has memory properties, so that drinking it passes on the memories of the victim. Worth remembering the next time I’m having dinner with George Bush: I’d love to know what he was thinking as he sat there reading the goat book on 9/11. Oh, and Derek Jacobi does not embarrass himself. I enjoyed it.
so, i went to a matinee showing and thoroughly enjoyed myself. there is much that is unclear and much that makes no sense but then again this is a movie about vampires and werewolves descended from one set of immortal twins, one bitten by a bat and the other by a wolf. still i would have liked to have known why markus is the only vampire with wings, and why drinking derek jacobi’s blood makes selene an uber-vampire.
one of the benefits of seeing a movie like this at the theater is getting all the cheesy genre previews. there was something called ultraviolet that i am genetically programmed to see; also a movie version of the silent hill game that actually looks good; and finally something called stay alive which is either a movie or a game, it was hard to tell.
I saw exactly the same previews, and had the same reaction to Ultraviolet. It did seem to have a similar “plot” to Aeon Flux.
Markus’ wings appeared to derive from the limbs of the aliens in “Alien(s)” in that they were “intelligently” designed to pin people to the wall and then lift them off the ground as they drip blood.
Silent Hill is the game that has creeped me out the most. I still wake up from nightmares in which I am walking through deserted snowy streets and I’m attacked by those weird bloodsucking vulture things! Silent Hill is one of the games that might actually make quite a good movie–let’s hope they do not retain the absolutely awful acting that did mar the game somewhat. ooohh…and those scary little ghost zombie kids slashing at your legs….i always knew elementary schools were repositories of evil.