The Underworld Evolution
delfiodisThe Underworld: Evolution
http://urllio.com/qz4quSelene wishes to expose the truth about the death of Viktor to the first true vampire Marcus that is hibernating. However, Marcus has already awakened and wants to release his savage Lycan brother William, who has been imprisoned for centuries. When Marcus tries to get the medal possessed by Lucian from Michael, Selene decides to visit Andreas Tanis, 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, Selene faces the powerful Marcus as the last hope left for mankind.
Underworld: Evolution continues the saga of war between the vampires and the Lycans. The film goes back to the beginnings of the ancient feud between the two tribes as Selene, the beautiful vampire heroine, and Michael, the lycan hybrid, try to unlock the secrets of their bloodlines. This will be a modern tale of action, intrigue and forbidden love, which takes them into the battle to end all wars as the immortals must finally face their retribution.
Kate Beckinsale is back for more vampire/werewolf shenanigans. Underworld: Evolution picks up right where the first film left off. If you haven't seen that first film do so. This sequel tries to give you a Cliff Notes recap of what happened in the first film. But honestly if you haven't seen the first one you may be a little lost here. And you'd want to see that first film anyway because quite frankly that one was better than this one.<br/><br/>So where were we? Beckinsale's Selene, still of course shoehorned into that body-hugging catsuit, is a vampire whose job is to kill werewolves. But now she's on the run with Michael, who's a vampire-werewolf hybrid. And Selene is kind of falling in love with Michael. Does this make any sense? Again, hope you watched that first movie. Meanwhile, vampire elder Marcus has gotten some wolf blood and is now a really ticked-off hybrid, flying around like a very angry bat. Marcus is coming after Selene and Michael. He's after something. That something turns out to be a pendant. This is apparently the most important pendant in the history of the world. Why? Well, we'll get to that later. First we've got a bunch of action sequences to get through. Bat-man Marcus and wolf-man Michael square off in all their CGI glory. There's more wolves, more vampires, more blood, more death and destruction. This movie had a much bigger budget than the first one and it's easy to see where the money went. It's a visual effects bonanza. Everything is bigger this time around. But bigger is not necessarily better.<br/><br/>Let's be honest, this whole story is rather silly. Vampires and werewolves slaughtering one another. But in that first movie the story, silly though it may have been, was engaging, compelling and even somewhat charming. The backstory was very well worked-out, it was a silly movie but it had some smarts to it. This time out charm and smarts are in much shorter supply. This is just a big action movie like so many other big action movies you have seen. This one just happens to involve vampires and werewolves. Beckinsale gives it a game effort again, building this franchise around her paid off very well. She kicks butt. This time she gets to show real emotion as well. And she certainly looks the part, who else would you rather see in that skin-tight catsuit? Scott Speedman is back as Michael. He has less actual acting to do than he did in the first movie. Now he just has to be big and strong and smash stuff. Which he does well enough I suppose. Tony Curran has his moments playing Marcus but all in all that character is bit of a problem. He's way over-the-top. Menacing to be sure but often cartoonishly so. This movie has a lot of action, and that action looks really good. The movie is shot beautifully, if a little darkly, and the visual effects are utterly convincing. But the action to story ratio is skewed way too far in the direction of action. It's a reasonably enjoyable watch for anyone who enjoyed the first movie. But there's little doubt you'll have enjoyed the first movie more.
The Underworld movies are like a modern day version of the old Hammer productions, with Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, or any other vampire hunter of the day. I'm not saying that they're similar in style, or anything of that kind, but they do serve the same cultural purpose. They occupy the same space in pop culture. Underworld Evolution has maybe some plot holes regarding Marcus, the main villain, plan, which one can only hope for his sake that it's clearer in his head, than it is on screen. And it suffers a bit from Scott Speedman being a weak co-star. His character barely register, and as a result is hard to really care for the love story between him and the beautiful vampire Selene. You accept it, but there's no real emotional involvement in it. But the flaws end here. The movie remains a fun, dark ride and a real guilty pleasure. There's authentic love in the way the movie mythology is fleshed out, there are impressive visuals (Marcus in his vampire form, with those wings that can become deadly weapons, is something to see), and while Kate Beckinsale obviously has not much to do acting wise, she does inhabit her character better than in the previous film. She seems more at ease with it, and she makes for a nice heroine. The film also ends on a vaguely romantic note which is quite nice. There's not much else to find in Underworld: Evolution, but the movie is good genre fun, and it's all it wants to be. Just like a good old Hammer production.
There's a ton of backstory behind Underworld: Evolution, which gets slightly denser and rowdier than its predecessor, but it's ultimately all in the service of a nigh-endless series of numbing, mechanical battles in which snarling protagonists and CGI monsters shoot, claw, and bloodily eviscerate each other. In other words, it's "Underworld," but more of it.
With the newly-awakened Marcus (<a href="/name/nm0192889/">Tony Curran</a>) on their tail, Selene (<a href="/name/nm0000295/">Kate Beckinsale</a>) and Michael (<a href="/name/nm0005454/">Scott Speedman</a>) go in search of vampire historian Andreas Tanis (<a href="/name/nm0533599/">Steven Mackintosh</a>) in order to learn why Marcus so desperately wants Selene and a pendant that she has possessed since childhood. Tanis puts Selene in touch with Alexander Corvinus (<a href="/name/nm0001394/">Derek Jacobi</a>), now calling himself Lorenz Macaro, who explains that the pendant is a key to the prison where William (<a href="/name/nm0824498/">Brian Steele</a>) has been confined for over half of a millenium. Now to find William before Marcus can set him free. Underworld: Evolution is based on a screenplay by American screenwriters Kevin Grevioux, Danny McBride, and Len Wiseman (who also directed the movie). The movie was subsequently novelized by American science fiction writer Greg Cox. The movie is the second in the Underworld series, having been preceded by <a href="/title/tt0320691/">Underworld (2003)</a> (2003) and followed by <a href="/title/tt0834001/">Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)</a> (2009), <a href="/title/tt1496025/">Underworld Awakening (2012)</a> (2012) and <a href="/title/tt3717252/">Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)</a> (2016). Except for a short jump prior to the opening credits that goes back into history to show the capture of William Corvinus (<a href="/name/nm0824498/">Brian Steele</a>), Evolution picks up right where Underworld left off. Michael is mortally wounded by Kraven (<a href="/name/nm0111274/">Shane Brolly</a>), and Selene bites him on Lucian's (<a href="/name/nm0790688/">Michael Sheen</a>) suggestion that "half-vampire half-Lycan are stronger than both." Viktor (<a href="/name/nm0631490/">Bill Nighy</a>) catches up to them, pulls Selene off Michael, and tosses him through a wall into a pool of water where he begins to transform again, this time incorporating his new vampire blood. Selene confronts Viktor with the fact that it was he, not the Lycans, who killed her family, and Viktor admits it, adding that he thinks he's given Selene a greater gift by turning her into a vampire but bemoans the fact that he's going to have to kill her just as he did his own daughter Sonja. As Viktor turns on Selene, Michael jumps him. Selene grabs a sword and goes after Viktor, beheading him. She then picks up the necklace that Viktor dropped after taking it from Lucian. The final scene scans the Great Hall, showing Marcus' tomb with Singe's (<a href="/name/nm0496441/">Erwin Leder</a>) Lycan blood spilling into it. In a voiceover, Selene says, Though I cannot predict the future, the consequences of this night will reverberate through the halls of both great coven for many years to come. Two vampire elders have been slain, one by my own hand. Soon Marcus will take the throne, and a tide of anger and retribution will spill out into the night. Differences will be set aside, allegiances will be made, and soon I will become the hunted. Alexander Corvinus was a Hungarian warlord in the 5th century whose village was ravaged by plague. Alexander had a rare (extremely rare) blood abnormality that gave him the ability to mold the sickness to his benefit within his own body. From this, he was granted superhuman strength and immortal life. Later, he fathered three sons. All three sons carried the same gene as Alexander, but in a dormant state. One son remained human and died a mortal death, passing down the hidden gene through his bloodlines. The other two—William and Marcus—were bitten by wolf and by bat, respectively, becoming the first werewolf and vampire. The movie involves many flashbacks (providing background information on the characters). In the original Underworld, Selene is exactly 121 years old. This number appeared on promotional pamphlets distributed before the film's release, and the novelization repeatedly states that she is only a little more than a century old. For Underworld: Evolution, however, this number is changed to roughly 600. Selene states in the opening monologue for Evolution, "For six centuries, I was a loyal soldier of the Vampire clan." These creatures, rather than mythology-based, are scientifically-based. So some rules, such as crosses, holy water, and reflection (which are often Dracula-specific anyway) are regarded as false traits. Marcus is a descendant of Alexander Corvinus and is capable of absorbing all three races (lycan, vampire, and human) without a fatal result. Marcus was already a vampire (albeit without the wings), and when Singe (the Lycan doctor killed by Viktor's deadly punch) died outside, his lycan blood went into Markus's crypt. Marcus then opened his eyes and found himself a hybrid. Selene brought Singe to Viktor to explain why they were after Michael. Singe explained that they needed a member of Alex Corvinus's line to mix the vampire and lycan bloodlines together. After a few more japes, Viktor split his skull, and he bled into Marcus's tomb. Selene saw it. The lycan's blood woke Marcus, the direct descendent of Alex Corvinus. She would remember the Singe encounter and put two and two together. What type of hybrid a person turned into depended on what species they were first. Michael was turned into a Lycan first. When he absorbed the Vampire strain of the virus, he turned into a Lycan-dominant hybrid (with more wolf-like traits). Marcus was already a Vampire. Therefore, when he absorbed the Lycan strain from Singe at the end of the first movie, he turned into a Vampire-dominant hybrid with bat-like traits such as wings. Viktor lied about a lot of things. It was he, not the Lycans, who killed Selene's family. He's neither the oldest nor the strongest, as was said in the first movie. Marcus is the oldest and, in fact, is the one who turned Viktor. The sons of the Corvinus clan were not at all a myth. When vampires drink blood or get into a fight, their eyes turn icy blue or yellow . The effect is often referred to as "vamping out." Now that Marcus has both keys and the knowledge of where the door lies, he opens it and finds William waiting. Selene leads the helicopter to where she remembers a secret passage into the prison and enters, along with a few backups. Once in, they hear the roar of a werewolf and meet up with William. Selene fires at William just as Marcus appears. Selene fires at Marcus, slowing him just long enough to get through the open door and close it behind her. Unfortunately, a bit of rock prevents the door from closing all the way. William catches up with Selene again. She fires at him repeatedly and blows up the cavern in which they are located. Suddenly, all the backups killed by William begin to turn into werewolves and converge on Selene. MIchael leaps from the helicopter into the fracas and helps Selene battle with William. However, Marcus has managed to get the door open, and he, too, joins the melee. The first thing he does is to grab on to a rope hanging from the helicopter and bring it tumbling down into the cavern where it catches on a catwalk and lies there, blades still spinning. Now it's Michael against William and Selene against Marcus. Eventually, Michael manages to behead William, and Selene shoves Marcus into the helicopter blades, tearing him to pieces. In the final scene, Selene realizes as the sun comes up that she is no longer burned by the light, thanks to Alexander Corvinus's blood. She and Michael embrace. In a voiceover, Selene says, A new chapter lies ahead. The line that divided the clans has now been blurred. Chaos and infighting are inevitable. All that is certain is that darkness is still ahead. But for now, for the first time, I look into the light with new hope. The blood she drank from Alexander Corvinus allowed for a new rebirth and strength among vampires. After drinking his blood, it made her system strong enough to bear the sun, which makes her a hybrid herself. As far as vampire weaknesses go, she may be totally indestructible. No. As explained by Tanis; When Marcus originally offered Viktor immortality, he warned him that if Marcus should die, all in his bloodline will follow him to the grave. He also said that if William were to die, all Lycans would die as well. However, Tanis points out that this was strictly a deception on Marcus' part in order to keep Viktor from killing William or plotting against Marcus. "Red Tape" by Agent Provocateur a5c7b9f00b