Underworld Evolution 2006 Film Action Sequel
Len Wiseman Returns to Direct Vampire Selene and Hybrid Michael
Sep 11, 2009
Following on immediately from the end of Underworld Selene attempts to return to the vampire’s mansion to awaken Markus, the Vampire’s last surviving Elder. She needs to explain why she murdered Viktor before he sends the remaining vampires to hunt her and Michael down. But Markus is no longer just a vampire; he too has become a hybrid, and is now strong enough to release his brother, the first and most powerful lycan, William.
Underworld Evolution's Plot and Characters
In 1202 AD the vampires Viktor (Bill Nighy), Amelia (Zita Görög), and Markus (Tony Curran) arrive at a decimated village. Everyone seems to have been slaughtered in the wake of a lycan attack. The humans begin to awaken and turn into werewolves. Markus’ brother William is found nearby and brutally captured by the vampires. It seems that the brothers were infected by a virus which made them both immortal, Markus was bitten by a bat and mutated into the first vampire, and William was bitten by a wolf and became the first lycan. Their other brother remained mortal and had several descendants (ultimately leading to Michael who became the first hybrid).
Returning to the night of the final battle seen in Underworld Michael and Selene (Scott Speedman and Kate Beckinsale reprising their roles from the first film) are on the run from both the vampires and werewolves. Kraven (Shane Brolly) beats them to the mansion and attempts to murder the hibernating Markus, but he has already become a hybrid. When he was a simple vampire, he was not strong enough to control his lycan brother, but as a hybrid Markus now believes that he can control William.
Regrettably Markus does not know where William is imprisoned, however, as a child Selene’s family built the prison to contain him and so she alone knows where Markus can find his brother’s prison.
Markus is going to release his brother and does not care who gets in his way.
Superior Sequel
There were those that found Underworld’s desire to tell the story of Michael’s creation a little disappointing because basically they wanted to see a massive fight between vampire and werewolf. Underworld Evolution does not really bother with a story. The audience knows why the vampires and werewolves are fighting, and it doesn’t really matter that Evolution rewrites a lot of the established history from Underworld. In this film Viktor is not the eldest and most powerful vampire, he was in fact the second, turned by Markus. At some point later on, Viktor rewrote the history books to make himself the first vampire.
Strangely Evolution focuses on Selene more than Michael, the creation of a hybrid was the point of the first film, and yet Michael just seems to follow Selene around as they try to stay a step ahead of Markus.
Michael and Selene’s relationship develops further and they seem to actually fall in love, however, their affection for one another really only expresses itself twice. Once when they have sex in a shipping container and then later when Selene struggles to keep him alive after a viciously brutal fight with Markus.
Everyone from the previous film returns to some degree Michael Sheen (Lucian) and Bill Nighy (Viktor) are seen during flashbacks, and Evolution introduces Alexander Corvin (Derek Jacobi) as the father of all immortals and Michael’s ancestor. The vampires’ historian Andreas Tanis (Steven Mackintosh) is also revealed, an immortal that was banished for knowing the truth about Viktor and the origins of the war.
Blood flows freely in this film, and Michael is seen ripping werewolves apart more than once. This is the straight up action sequel and is an improvement on the previous story. The plot is basic and is just an excuse for powerful immortals to be knocking the living daylights out of one another.
8/10
Lots of blood, lots of violence, and not much substance.
What more could anyone ask for from a film about vampires and hybrids fighting to the death.
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