UNDERWORLD was a surprise hit in 2003, no doubt thanks in part to the trailer and commercials focusing on star Kate Beckinsale’s finely leathered behind. It “told” the “story” of a feud between modern-day vampires and werewolves. I put quotes around those words because I remember being completely baffled by trying to keep track of who was who and what was what, but the visuals and the action were cool enough to make me like it overall.

UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, then, is everything a sequel should be: shorter, gorier, sexier and much less complicated. (Okay, so meathead costar Scott Speedman spends inordinate amounts of time without a shirt on, but since Kate matches him in one scene, I’ll consider it a wash.)

As you’d expect, the vampire-vs.-werewolf war rages on. Kate’s character Selene is a vampire betrayed by her race, whose leader she killed at the end of the first film, so she’s on the run with her vamp/wolf hybrid loverboy (played with almost zero screen presence by Speedman). They’re chased by the new lead vampire guy, who is seen mostly as this bad-ass flying demon who likes to puncture people’s torsos with his razor-sharp wing tips. So maybe I don’t have all the details down pat – who cares? It’s vampires fighting werewolves. And many more scenes of Beckinsale’s aforementioned finely leathered behind.

I love the look of these UNDERWORLD films, and I think they’re fun. Yes, they take themselves a little too seriously, but the action in this one (plus the added lucidity) more than redeems its flaws. Chunk the brain and enjoy the ride. And since Kate and Scotty bump in this one, I’m ready for UNDERWORLD: BABIES next. –Rod Lott

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 11:14 am and is filed under DVD Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.