The Movie Diorama Three years later, mainstream vampire flicks remain dormant and so Wiseman and his team produce the inevitable sequel. Critics lambasted it, audiences enjoyed it...I'm with the latter. He's upped the budget, increased the action but, yet again, told a thinly written story. The vampire and lycan war rages on, Selene and new hybrid Michael must stop vampire elder Markus from releasing his imprisoned brother William in order to take over the dark bleak world with vampire-lycan hybrids. Basic story is basic, yet somehow feels more convoluted as each chapter is released. In fact, it's so complicated in terms of depicting the Corvinus bloodline that the first few minutes were just exposition. Flashbacks of the previous film to make sure the audience are up to speed. That in itself raises alarm bells. However, despite the bland monotonous story, Wiseman has crafted a consistently entertaining sequel that removes the horror elements and instead injects the narrative with pure action adrenaline. This change-up surprisingly works and will set the franchise off to a new course. Markus seems like the vampire equivalent of 'The Terminator', seemingly unstoppable with his sharp back wing arm things (best description ever). Kate Beckinsale in all her black leather glory is here to save the day, where the two have a fantastically exciting showdown in the third act. Actually, the entire third act is ace. Redeems the entire film from being a melodramatic drag. Derek Jacobi brings in some much needed acting talent with his thespian background, and intriguingly introduces some emotion to the story. Wiseman's insistence on utilising practical effects is always a pleasure to see, although some of the occasional CGI misses entirely. Some excellent production design, particularly the medieval castle in the final battle which ever so reminded me of 'Skyrim'. This sequel really is an onslaught of wet fur, sharp fangs and UV bullets, but it never once failed to entertain me. I can only hope the franchise maintains this consistent level...

jacobjohntaylor1 The first movie of Underworld is very scary. But this is scarier. This movie has great acting. It also has great special effects. It also has a great story line. 6.8 is a good ratting. But this such a great horror film that 6.8 is underrating it. This is a 10. See this movie. It is scarier then The Shining and that is not easy to do. This scarier then Halloween and that is not easy to do. This is scarier then Friday the 13th and that is not easy to do. This is scarier then A Nightmare on elm street and that is not easy to do. This is scarier then Psycho and that is not easy to do. One movie that is scarier then this is Underworld awakenings. This is one of the scariest movies from 2006. See it.

Leofwine_draca I quite enjoyed the first UNDERWORLD movie, so when I saw that this sequel had a stronger rating, I was all for it, hoping for a decent action flick a la BLADE II. On the face of it, UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION offers exactly that, a tense thrill ride with plenty of action and heroics throughout. Oddly enough it fails from becoming a classic because it's got simply too much action, and action that's all pretty similar at that. Watching people fight with CGI monsters and heroes getting wounded but always coming back to life gets a bit stale after a while. I was also annoyed with Wiseman's colour palette; here it's all the same bluey-grey tones as we saw in DIE HARD 4.0, and it seems to be the only style of filming that the director uses. Why not branch out for some variety once in a while? Still, on the face of it, I love action and monster bloodshed, and this film delivers that in spades. There's a cool new monster on the scene, a huge and powerful flying vampire guy, who is well animated and frightening, and a briefly-seen "king" werewolf, huge and white. The CGI werewolf transformations are well done and have a nice stop-motion look to them that recall the old Universal classics amongst others. There are some decent set-pieces, including a truck chase and a cavernous climax, but it's all a little too silly and repetitive for my liking. Watching Kate Beckinsale pull ammo from behind her back where there clearly was none a moment before is just cheating the audience, and seeing her take down armed policemen in a forest, using her martial arts skills, is a little too been-there-done-that. Wiseman just wants everything to look cool without question, and the result is frequent lapses in logic and more plot holes than I could count.One of the silliest things about the film is the ludicrous back story. It was bad in the first film and even more demented here, with this guy doing something to that guy, that guy's family getting offended and doing something back, two different hybrid folks, blah blah blah. Who cares, really? There's no sense of even the family history that I saw in BLADE II; it just seems preposterous and half-hearted. The acting is also something of a detraction. Principal actors like Beckinsale and Speedman are sleepwalking through this, and I was annoyed when Bill Nighy turned up despite being killed in the first film (he's in a flashback here). Dressed in armour nicked from LORD OF THE RINGS, Nighy hams so bad I nearly turned the film off there and then, definitely the worst he's done. 'Classical' actor Derek Jacobi turns up to grab a pay cheque, and Beckinsale strips off for a silly sex scene which hints but shows nothing. What's the point, really? I have to admit that the special effects throughout are good, even if the situations are ludicrous. The film wins marks for offing one of the bad guys with helicopter blades (always a pleasure to watch and executed perfectly here) but uses the same kind of science-defying mistake we saw in Van Damme's SUDDEN DEATH, when a helicopter drops vertically and somehow its blades don't stop spinning, even after it's crashed. Good gore, bad plot; for what it's worth, I enjoyed this flick, but it's not one I would want to watch again.

Terryfan I did watch the first Underworld many years ago and I didn't care for it at the time but overtime I thought I would give the series another chance. All watching all four films I figure I start reviewing the sequels one film at a time.So now we move onto Underworld:Evolution which I might consider my favorite in the Underworld series and here's why.The plot of the film picks up where the first one left off centering around Selene (Kate Beckinsale) and Michael (Scott Speedman) are on the run while also being hunted by Marcus (Tony Curran). We also get to learn about the history of the two factions. The writers made it work so those new to the series could better understand Also the action scenes in this film were very well balance and original for the film which could make it a stronger film in the series as some had said.The Music in the film sets the tone to match it to each scene. The score brings the emotion out in the characters which you could actually feel for them not all films can say that. The tension in the film you could cut it with a knife and the performances of the cast helps make it feel that way. The film just has a lot to make a enjoyable film and actually a strong sequel So if you're a fan of Vampire and werewolf films you will enjoy this one with tension throughout, good score and a character driven story this film is not one to be missedI give Underworld: Evolution an 8 out of 10