Underworld Evolution

Underworld Evolution 2006

• Director: Len Wiseman
• Other films seen by this director: Underworld
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Tony Curran, Derek Jacobi, Bill Nighy, Steven Mackintosh
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kate Beckinsale – Underworld, Absolutely Anything, Total Recall, The Aviator, Serendipity, The Last Days of Disco, Shooting Fish, Cold Comfort Farm, Prince of Jutland, Much Ado about Nothing, Underworld
• Scott Speedman – My Life without Me, Underworld
• Tony Curran – X-Men First Class, The Pillars of the Earth, Doctor Who, Primeval, Gladiator, Great Expectations, Go Now, Shallow Grave
• Derek Jacobi – Last Tango in Halifax, Murder on the Orient Express, Vicious, Cinderella, My Week with Marilyn, The King’s Speech, Doctor Who, Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Gladiator, Hamlet, Dead Again, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II, I Claudius
• Bill Nighy – The Bookshop, Their Finest, Hotel Marigold 1&2, Pride, About Time, Jack the Giant Slayer, Total Recall, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, Doctor Who, Glorious 39, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Underworld, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, Gideon’s Daughter, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Love Actually, Kiss Me Kate, Black Books, Longitude, Still Crazy
• Steven Mackintosh – Robot Overlords, The Thirteenth Tale, Our Mutual Friend, Twelfth Night, Karaoke, Prick Up Your Ears
•  Why? Bill Nighy
• Seen: 4 July 2020

        Hundreds of years ago the bloody war between the vampires and the Lycans (werewolves) begins, then the story picks up where the first film left off. Vampire Selena (Beckinsale) and human/vampire/werewolf hybrid Michael (Speedman) are on the run, hunted by both sides.

       Why are they suddenly in some Slavic country where they sometimes speak French? Who is Derek Jacobi and what is he doing in this film? What is this even about?

       A story of sorts and a few answers emerge and the cast is peppered with several from the British acting elite which grants it a touch of class but there’s more violence and gore than is entirely necessary and altogether too many fist fights. When will directors learn – fist fights are BORING!

       Though shorter than the first one it feels longer. It’s less entertaining and more – if I may use such a word in the circumstances – unlikely (even within the framework of vampires and werewolves which some narrow-minded people find unlikely in itself…)

2 * of 5