eyeCandy: Underworld: Evolution (2006) 3/5

Underworld: Evolution is, despite a fairly contrived plot and a couple of hokey sentimental moments, pretty much what you'd expect in a decent follow up to the original Underworld. The movie is great to look at (and, in fact, you also get to look at Kate Beckinsale without that pesky skin-tight black suit on in a little Vampite/Hybrid love scene), but it's a more of a colleciton of cool sequences than a great movie.

The tone is consistent with the first Underworld - dark and hip, sort of a Matrix feel but with vampires and werewolves. The story revolves around the two proginators of the original vampire and werewolf lines. These two first-of-the-species creatures are brothers and, in the intro of the movie, we are shown how the wild werewolf brother was imprisoned long ago for his beastly acts, much to the chagrin of his vampire brother. The vampire brother, after patiently biding his time, is now on a quest to free his ancient werewolf sibling with only our heroes (the vampire Kate Beckinsale and the vampire/werewolf hybrid Scott Speedman) standing in his way.

To their credit, the creators of Underworld are at least trying to develop their own mythology around this endless war between Werewolves (called Lycan here) and Vampires (or Death Dealers) - somewhat in the spirit of what Anne Rice did more successfully in her Vampire Chronicles novels.

In short, if you saw the 2003 Underworld and liked it, or if you're just looking for some action/horror/sci-fi eye candy, then you probably won't be disappointed with Underworld: Evolution. If this doesn't sound like something you'd be in to then I'd give it a pass ;-) .