I love werewolves. Well, I should say I love wolves and being that I work occasionally on horror special effects it stands to reason that werewolves should be my favorite ‘creature of the night.’ There’s been a long-running battle between me and some of my friends as to who really is better, vampires or werewolves and this is somewhat the premise of the original “Underworld.” It seems there was an ancient war being fought on the fringes of our reality. A war between vampires (known as Bloods) and werewolves (known as Crips… I mean Lycans). No one even seems to remember why they’re fighting. I guess you could consider it horror’s answer to the Hatfields and McCoys.

The first “Underworld” took the legends of these two monster movie favorites and presented a new twist where their battles consisted of guns, hard rock soundtracks, guns, Olympic Medal gymnastics and more guns. It starred Kate Beckinsale as a centuries-old Death Dealer. Clad in extremely tight leather and armed to the teeth (pun intended) she is a vamp on a mission to hunt down the Lycans and destroy them one by one. But when she found out the Lycans were trying to locate a particular man for reasons unknown, her priorities changed as she sets out to discover why they needed him.

I didn’t see “Underworld” until it was released on DVD back at the beginning of 2004 and wasn’t sure what to expect from it. To be honest I had listened to some of the negative press during the film’s theatrical release and expected to be ‘under whelmed.’ I thought it would probably be like watching a brawl at a Goth bar, where CG effects outweighed any good old-fashioned ‘men in suits’ affairs. As it stands “Underworld” held quite a few surprises for me. Though I was right about the Goth bar look to some of the characters, the storyline and pacing of the film was far better than I expected. The action sequences, which I was led to believe would be “Matrix” rip-offs, were anything but. Granted, the filmmakers used a lot of slow motion but there was no sign of any ‘bullet-time’ effects. I found the film overall to be a highly creative effort.

But what impressed me the most about the film was just how little CGI was used to create the werewolves. For the most part it was used during the transformations, but almost every shot of a werewolf was done with either a highly articulate animatronic piece or costume. As it was, the two were blended so well that I didn't even realize they used costumes until I watched one of the featurettes about it. Having built werewolf costumes, I was highly impressed with the level of quality that was shown. The last time I was that blown away was when I saw the design used in “Dog Soldiers.” The fact that they had perfected ‘back-bending knee’ leg extensions that could be walked on was a challenge we had worked on for years. Their design was awesome, and if you have ever worked on creature effects I guarantee you'd be impressed, too.

I’m really not sure why “Underworld” received such flack during its theatrical run. I actually ended up liking the movie a lot more than I thought I would and looked forward to watching it a couple of times for the commentary.

When "Underworld: Evolution" came out, I meant to go see it in the theatre. Since it was directed by the same guy (Len Wiseman) and had the same stars (Beckinsale and Speedman), I figured it would still be as much fun as the first one. However, as luck is not often on my side when trying to out of the house and into a theatre, I ended up waiting again for the eventual DVD release. Incidentally, it was my wife who kept bugging me every few days as to whether or not we had received it yet. The day it showed up at our door, she looked at me and said, "As soon as the baby is asleep, we're putting that puppy in…" so we did.

"Underworld Evolution" takes up quite literally where the first one ended. It opens with a little bit of a history lesson of where the first vampire and werewolf came from (they were brothers), and how the war began. This opening battle is quite extensive and fairly bloody, well at least the blood looks very garish against the overall blue shades the movies uses as its palette. We then flash forward to our heroes, Selene (Beckinsale) & Michael (Scott Speedman), the latter of which is now the world's first vampire/werewolf hybrid. They are fresh on the run from having killed the supposed leader of the vampires, Viktor (Bill Nighy).

But as it turns out, they have more to fear from the newly released Marcus (Tony Curran), who is the true 'first'. He wants to find the key that will release his twin brother, William (the first werewolf) from his centuries old imprisonment. Marcus is one of the most fearsome and violently evil vampires I have ever seen onscreen, and when he is full 'vamp' mode (which he is most of the time) he shows us that his wings are for far more than just flying.

Like the first film, "Underworld: Evolution" had its detractors. I heard from a lot of people that the movie wasn't any good. I think the problem was they were looking for a little too much substance. But films like these are expected, at least by me, to project style over substance. The storyline is interesting enough, but I'm watching it for all the special effects. And in the case of these two films, looking forward to seeing them al the more because I know they don’t over rely on CGI.

As a matter of fact, if I was to make any complaint about the movie at all, it would be that the writers tried to throw in a gratuitous 'sex scene' between our two stars. First of all, it was unnecessary, but to add insult to injury, it was very poorly shot. The lighting, which threw out all of the blue tones (I guess to make the flesh look… fleshier…), just yanked me right out of the movie. It was also very clumsy, in that they were very careful to hide any of the 'naughty bits', but made it really obvious they were trying to hide them. It was just a terrible scene all the way around

I was extremely pleased with the transfer of the film. The look of “Underworld: Evolution” is extremely dark, as one might expect. Even when there were well-lit scenes, the film’s overall blue cast makes them look dark. In spite of all this darkness I never had any problems seeing every detail. As the film is so action heavy, the sound is also very important to the home entertainment experience. In doing a transfer to DVD, if the balance isn’t right you often lose the dialogue in the midst of all the gunfire and music. Here I found no evidence of this. All the dialogue was kept at just the right level and was always clear and easy to understand.

I was also glad to see that the Sony opted to fill out the disc with a lot of special features, which makes me think they might not double-dip this time (like they did with the first feature). There are several featurettes (6 to be exact) that focus on various aspects of the production. Each of them is well worth a watch because in spite of the aforementioned lack of substance to the film, the production value on the film is actually quite high. There is also a commentary by director Len Wiseman, production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, second-unit director and stunt coordinator Brad Martin, and editor Nick De Toth, as well as a music video by Atreyu. (Atreyu? Wasn't that the kid in "The Never Ending Story??)

Anyhow, the bottom line, is that while "Underworld: Evolution" gives you more of the same that you got from the first movie, it is done very well. and if you have a problem with the weak plot, just consider the films to at least 'look great… but less filling…'

Directed by: Len Wiseman
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Tony Curran, Shane Broley
Extras: Director & Filmmakers Commentary, The Hybrid Theory, The War Rages On, Bloodlines - From Script to Screen, Making Monsters Roar, Building a Saga, Music & Mayhem, Music Video - "Her Portrait in Black" by Atreyu
Specifications: Widescreen (2.40:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Release Date: 6/13/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give Underworld: Evolution an B+.