A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Underworld: Evolution

Date Viewed: 1/21/06

Details:

Kate Beckinsale

Scott Speedman

Tony Curran

Sir Derek Jacobi

Bill Nighy

Written & directed by: Len Wiseman

Score: 0

The Review: This might be titled simply Underworld 2, the immediate sequel to Underworld, but it's not quite as good. But it does give a whole new meaning to the (twisted) lyric, "Don't it turn your blue eyes brown."

The universe is pretty damn close to ours (if mostly seen only at night), and is engaged in a secret war that has been raging undetected for about 800 years (I commented on this puzzling invisibility in the previous review) -- a war between the two myth lines that pass their phenotype via saliva or blood: the vampires and the werewolves (or lycanthropes). Selene (Beckinsale) is still a Death Dealer (of vampire heritage and sanctioned assassin of lycans), but she's now on the run as a consequence of recent events.

This sequel is only interesting because of the bricks added to the wall of mythos: the origin of (and the origin of the conflict between) the vampires and the lycans; some new characters who turn out to be very old indeed; why the war has been so effectively concealed from mundane humans; some insight into the odd biology involved. Neurophysiologists and hematologists will be fascinated to discover that not only can blood be (or contain?) an infectious alien with remarkable transforming abilities, but blood is also memory, indeed memory with rapid fixation rate and incredible chronological depth.

Not bad, just not very engaging. When I start to nod off in the first 5 minutes, something's wrong. The SFX are OK, but not compelling. Sadly, Bill Nighy is visible only in a few introductory flashbacks; Sir Derek does an excellent job, a surprising addition to a mostly unknown cast. And Kate Beckinsale does look good in leather!

(21-Jan-06)

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