Underworld 2 : Évolution

Just imagine if your brother was lupine, while you devoured blood, like it was claret wine, he loved to howl and bark, you just loved being in the dark, a psychotic and neurotic frater line.

Selene is being hunted for her blood, batty Marcus needs to find where William's stood, he wants to build the family, there's some new anthropology, to explain why they enjoyed their childhood.

It's only downhill from now on, as the franchise ruptures, the bloods gone, not quite knowing when to stop, perpetually draining a good plot, leaving a husk, a shallow spectre of what was.

Be nice to know what the point of it all is too, aside from megalomania.

Good Start up to the new saga of movies. If you are a fan of horror and the underworld series themselves then it's worth a watch, action packed from pretty much start to finish and delivers a good story that moves on for the first lot. Kate is great as always and brings along others to perform a good hour and forty minutes of vampire/werewolf mayhem!

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.

OVERALL: The first film was an action-horror movie with a great original storyline. This sequel, on the other hand, felt more like a series of left over action scenes that were taken out of the first film. I think watching the two films back to back will make a great overall experience. But as a stand-alone, it doesn't quite work. It's fun for sure, but that's about it. It's not even remotely close to being as good or better than the original in any way.

Selene (Kate Beckinsale) wishes to expose the truth about the death of Viktor to the first true vampire Marcus (Tony Curran) that is hibernating. However, Marcus has already awakened and wants to release his savage Lycan brother William (Brian Steele), who has been imprisoned for centuries. When Marcus tries to get the medal possessed by Lucian from the hybrid Michael (Scott Speedman), Selene decides to visit Andreas Tanis (Steven Mackintosh), the exiled official historian of the covens, to understand his interest. When Selene and Michael meet Tanis, they disclose the truth about their bloodlines, and later with the support of Alexander Corvinus (Sir Derek Jacobi), Selene faces the powerful and evil Marcus as the last hope left for the mankind.

It is very difficult to see good sequels, but "Underworld – Evolution" gave me the sensation that together with "Underworld", they are one good movie split in two parts. The viewers like me that enjoyed "Underworld" will certainly like this sequel very much. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Anjos da Noite – A Evolução" ("Angels of the Night - The Evolution")

Note; On 28 January 2017, I saw this film again.

Who would of thought January would be a good month for movies? Two weeks ago saw the release of GRANDMA'S BOY, the funniest comedy to come out in the 2000s yet and this week brings UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, a sequel that is *gasp* better than the original. Finding a sequel as good or better than the original is, pardon the old expression, like finding a needle in a haystack. It just doesn't happen very often, which what makes UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION such a treat. It's bigger and better the original. This is no doubt because the cast members are more suited in their roles than they were before and because with his second feature, Len Wiseman has grown as a director. Also improved are the special effects that appeared somewhat fake in the original film. If 'EVOLUTION' was only about special effects like mostly all action pictures today, it would be no good, but thanks to screenwriter Danny McBride and Wiseman, there is actually a good story behind the mayhem. Were there weak points? Just a couple. The chemistry between Selene and Michael seemed a bit off at times. 9/10