UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION

Selene and Michael are on the run, one guilty of the death of Viktor, the great elder of the Vampire clan; the other of representing the obscene cross between the race of Vampires and that of the Lycans. Soon, Marcus, the last ancient vampire and first representative of his race, wakes up and, having learned what happened during his sleep and the betrayals that occurred in his clan, convinces himself that the best thing to do is to go in search of his brother William, the first Lycan in history, and to lead together with him a bloody rise to power. But William was imprisoned centuries ago by Viktor in a fortress of which only Selene knows the location and of which only Michael possesses the key. The confrontation will be inevitable. Two years after "Underworld", its evolution arrives in theaters. "Underworld: Evolution" opens with a time jump of several centuries, showing us how the three sovereign vampires, Viktor, Marcus, and Amelia, are engaged in warding off the first signs of the spread of lycanthropy, caused by the original Lycan William. Return to the present and link to the first chapter, after a quick summary narrated by the enchanting voice of Selene. In some aspects, this second episode is really an evolution, since the story thickens and brings new characters to the scene, but at the same time everything that is left unresolved in the first film and all the novelties of this second one are brought to a conclusion. Perhaps some characters would have needed more attention, such as the case of Alexander Corvinus, the common ancestor of both races of monsters, and the lycan William, who is relegated to only a small part in the finale. The evolution is also marked by a greater availability of budget that allowed for spectacular sets and special effects and makeup that are practically perfect. Particularly appreciable is the choice by the director and screenwriter Len Wiseman (coming from the first episode) to use digital only when strictly necessary, thus allowing us to see in action appealing mechanical lycans (but often they are fur costumes worn by stuntmen). The bloody scenes are literally tripled compared to the "moderate" first episode, showing us the battles between monsters in the most gruesome solution, often and willingly bordering on splatter (anthology the initial battle in the past and the final confrontation with Marcus). But a regression can be noted in the psychological characterization of the characters: in addition to the already mentioned Corvinus and William, even the character of Marcus does not receive the adequate development (he is shown to us as a classic villain with manias of omnipotence), as well as Michael (still played by Scott Speedman) who does not undergo any significant variation compared to his character in the first film, despite his new condition as a half-breed would have foreshadowed an additional internal conflict. The only character who seems to evolve is Selene (always beautiful Kate Beckinsale), no longer a cold agent of death, she appears less vampiric and more human, accompanied by increasingly frequent memories of her family and her original condition as a human. Naturally, the sociological undertones developed in the previous film are abandoned here, as well as the social stratification and the war between clans are put in the background to give more prominence to the personal vicissitudes of the Corvinus family; even the lycan aspect of the story is inexplicably put in the background, as if to say that the dominant and more interesting race is always and anyway that of the Vampires. The Lycans are shown to us as bodyguards of the bloodsuckers and it seems that in this film they do not have a rational conscience, but only an uncontrollable destructive instinct. In conclusion, "Underworld: Evolution" is a fun monster movie steeped in pop culture and marked by pleasant splatter turns. Some details really raise it to an evolution of the first episode, only to yield under other aspects, but the result is still a fresh, engaging, and spectacular sequel.