Review: Underworld Evolution (2006)

Beginning where Underworld (1) finished, Selene and Michael are on the run from the vampires. Being the cause of Viktor's death, Selene can only hope to plea to the last remaining elder, Marcus. However, Marcus has already awakened and has become a more powerful creature than before. Now his only remaining goal is to awaken his Lycan brother, William from his eternal imprisonment. With time running out, Selene and Michael must piece together the final clues to unlock the secrets of their bloodlines and stop Marcus before it's too late.

Underworld Evolution is a film for fans of the genre - if you like it, prepare for two hours of undiluted pleasure. If you enjoyed the first film in the series, you will probably love this one.

Underworld is a dark domain where age-old enmity between Vampires and Lycans (werewolves) is played out with terrifying fury. Normal people are fairly peripheral to the plot (vampires have emergency blood transfusion type supplies to save the need to attack humans). Both sides are armed not only with traditional blood-sucking and flesh-tearing fang-capacity, but with all the gadgetry of customised guns and other scientific paraphernalia with which to track and kill each other. Here is no disneyfied world of a timid picture-book 'Dracula' hidden in a battered old coffin somewhere - these guys exult in state-of-the-art locking crypts, massive stone fortresses, and raids conducted with military precision. The film unashamedly boasts an adults-only certificate and has consummate amounts of nastiness, gore, head-ripping and scary battles as well as realistic dollops of sex.



A number of great performances from polished actors complimented some truly spectacular action scenes and plot developments and twists.


The pacing was very good, the dialogue was at times great, overall very fitting (and never poor), all questions a viewer could have possibly coming into the film are addressed and sufficiently answered, and some of the subtleties of the film, such as the appropriate use of brief flashbacks, kept the film from ever becoming confusing or difficult to follow, which I felt happened on occasion in the first film the first time I saw it.

Kate Beckinsale delivers a performance that shows she is a very versatile actress who just so happens to be strikingly beautiful, and Scott Speedman was more than just a little eye-candy for the ladies, delivering a performance that made me believe he was the perfect Michael Corvin far more than the first film. And the supporting cast around the two main stars were all equally up to the task, with many turning in performances that are likely to be career defining.