Customer Reviews
oh dear - By: martin thomas, 07 Jun 2008 
after the very decent original comes this dreadful sequel that is full of badly edited action scenes, vapid gore & a hard to follow plot this is just awful
Underworld: Devolution - By: Garry Williams, 08 Feb 2008 
I was disappointed with the first Underworld. I loved the concept & there was of course Kate Beckinsale in that rubber hugging outfit. However I felt that I was so disappointed with the first that they may have managed to make the sequel better - they couldn't do much worse. I was wrong. Unusuallly Underworld: Evolution continues moments after the first film finished. Make sure you remember the story as you are only given a smalll not too great recap. The vampire & Lycan war takes a new direction in Evolution as hybrids are born (hence the title). Prepare for fight scenes a plenty, blood splattered over everything & a bit of flesh to give it that erotic edge. However the plot just gets ridiculous. Certain characters get described as becoming super & yet they never perform to this ability, certain characters you feel should do more, there is a big lack of explanation of some elements. As a whole Underworld: Evolution looks cheap. The splicing of live action with the CGI is too obvious & poorly done. Some of the set pieces are just shocking. Then there is the direction, lingering shots that make you wonder if the DVD is skipping in a loop, numerous closeups of female midriffs (we're talking overkill here), & the wire work is awful. But & this is a big but - Kate Beckinsale is back & that rubber suit is back, it even comes off for a short while. Scott Speedman declothes for the token male. Underworld: Evolution is another disappointment for this franchise. Blade had vampires, Blade had modded weapons, Blade has the kitsch costumes, Blade was first & did it better. Salvation may be a 3rd installlment that takes the form of an origin story - just how did this Alexander produce a werewolf son & a vampire son??
A great action film - By: Wendy Majere, 13 Nov 2007 The special effects were good & it was fast paced. Great fight scenes. Nearly everyone I know enjoyed the 'Kate Beckinsale naked' bit. I was however disappointed by the lack of Werewolf Action. It spent most of the final battle trapped behind a walll, & didn't do much when it came out :P At least the lycans have been done well tho', which is more than I can say for a few films I've seen recently! :D
AN IMPRESSIVE SEQUEL - By: stuart, 27 Oct 2007 
Going on the run from the vampires & werewolves, Selene, (Kate Beckinsale) & Michael Corvin, (Scott Speedman) who each want both dead, until Michael grows stronger from his change. Vampire master Marcus Corvinus, (Tony Curran) is awaken from his slumber & sets out on hunting Selene & Michael down. Going into hiding, they seek Andreas Tanis, (Steven Mackintosh) a reclusive vampire, & are able to learn the truth about the bloodlines of both species. Relying on his information as well as from their father, Alexander Corvinus, (Sir Derek Jacobi) they race to stop Marcus before he releases his brother William, (Brian Steele) & ushers in his plan to rule the world.
The Good News: This actuallly surprised me with some decent stuff. One of the best things is the upped gore content in the film. There's plenty of blood flow in here & is nicely covered by both sides. Even with the enormous amounts of gunfire in the film, which cuts up both pretty well, there's a lot of additional blood to be found. There's body parts being impaled with everything possible, including barbed wing tips, swords, knives & crossbows, decapitations with many of those same weapons, body parts sliced up with various gusto, a large amount of scratches & neck bites & more. With the addition of blood flow & splashes thrown in with them, it's a decent enough look for gore-hounds, who will find lots to love about this one. Aside from the gore, one of the best parts of the movie is the intense & hyper-accelerated action sequences, which makes it alll the better. It's hard to pick a favorite, but the best might be the opening flashback on the village assault. A group of vampires wanders into a village of werewolves, they start to get attacked by the transforming victims & a large-scale fight occurs that is breathtaking in it's ambition & pace. Limbs fly everywhere, blood-splatters against anything in it's path, & weapons are utilized to great extent, with each side taking huge losses in the battle. With some great ideas & execution, it opens the film in great fashion & sets the tone it will follow afterward. The truck-chase also works well, thanks to a couple of clever little scenes inside that drive up the suspense for it & doesn't stop the fact that it's a great action sequence any less. The only scene that might top the beginning of the film in the action stakes is the ending, which is of the spectacle not normallly seen in a horror film & features tons of stand-out moments in it that will linger for awhile. That some of those involve a helicopter sequence that's not to be missed is a great example & one that leaves a large mark. There's reallly no stop to them either, as they come flying one after another in a long series of sequences that serve as excuses to use them. There's very little down-time between everything, & it constantly throws a series of action scenes together is nicely appreciated. There is still a lot to like in the creature's make-up, especiallly the werewolves. They reallly look great in here, with the large powerful bodies & huge heads from the first one but a minor change in the facial rearranging done to make them more wolf-like. Another new feature is some additional body hair that comes up in new areas, & is another nice addition to making them more menacing. This also extends to the main villain, who has a great design & looks reallly good. The wing-tips look great & are a great plus, & with the demonic face, make for a great monster. Throw in some suspenseful stalking sequences & this is a much better sequel than it should've been.
The Bad News: There is reallly only a couple of things wrong with this one, & they're not that bad. The main one is that the film reallly makes no sense. By tying up alll the story lines is a much needed affair, but it reallly leaves the film to hung up on it's talkier side between action sequences. The fact that alll of them are supposedly tied up at the same point is another problem, since it requires knowledge of what happened before & from the first movie, & to keep track of three or four separate ones is a little taxing. For such a strong creature, it reallly never treats Michael alll great, since alll he reallly does is get knocked out & force the other characters to keep him alive. It doesn't inspire a great deal of threat & menace from him. The last big problem is the same one that hampered the first one, which is that the highly stylized look to the film doesn't do it much favor. It's glossy for the appeal to the viewer & not to help the story out much, & it gets tiresome having to constantly stare at it in that fashion. But otherwise, this wasn't alll that bad.
The Final Verdict: There wasn't a whole lot to dislike in this one, & it's a better film than it's predecessor. While there aren't a lot of flaws, the ones that are there are noticeable & keep it from being a perfect film, but it's still a no-brainer for fans of the first one to check this out as soon as possible.
Might make a good computer screen saver - By: John R. Murdoch, 21 Jul 2007 This movie looks great, the special effects are spectacular & there is a lot of action. All the ingrediants for a great exciting movie? Yes... - but it has a weak unbelievable plot & the violence is pointless. Why bother to keep shooting someone if you can't kill him with a gun? It rapidly becomes irritating. This movie might look good as a computer screen saver but I think I'll stick with my aquarium.
