From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment comes the highly anticipated DVD sequel to the movie Underworld, titled Underworld Evolution. You’ll find this movie picking up exactly where it left off from the first, and if you haven’t seen the original you may want to before you see the sequel or you may find yourself very confused. So going on the basis that you’ve seen the first film we open with Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) and Selena (Kate Beckinsale) who have just killed victor (Bill Nighy) a vampire elder and are now racing to find Markus (Tony Curran) the oldest living vampire. There goal is to find him and explain all the trouble they’ve been involved in, but he finds them first. Being that Markus hates the idea of a Vampire/Lycan hybrid he immediately tries to kill Michael, which of course automatically makes him Selena and Michaels enemy. So just like in the first Underworld leads to a lot of running and chasing, and a very interesting journey for the two which introduces some very interesting characters. Now really much of what I can say will spoil the film for you fans of this movie out there so ill stop there but I will say that this movie is a great continuation of the first film, therefore if your already a fan this really is a must see anyway.

Being a long time fan of the vampire myth I loved underworld when it came out in 2003, and when they left it open for a second film I bided my time with anticipation so I obviously won’t have a lot of negative comments for this film. What I can say surprised me was that they still didn’t get the lighting right from the first, I understand this is a vampire at night story but I found that the darkness was a little overwhelming in some scenes and I know it wasn’t to save on background props because most of this film is CGI. Which is where I found another problem, some of the computer generation was a little cartoony, and the parts where humans change into Lycan is a prime example and I cant say there is an excuse for this because the transformation for Michael the hybrid and Markus were damn near perfect in my opinion.

Now as far as the storyline goes I thought it was pretty good, almost everything came together perfectly and there were some very creative ideas added to the story, but it did get a little overwhelming with all the history added at once, I found myself feeling as if I was back at school trying to keep up. The other big thing I didn’t like about the story may only be eating at me and that’s the fact that the Lycans were looking for an immortal ancestor to Alexander Corvinus (the father of the twin boys, the first Lycan and first vampire). What bothered me is that, o.k. the immortal gene skipped a crapload of generations but there would be a hell of a lot more immortals than just the one they found as family’s get larger through the generations, and the only reason it bugged me I think is because they made such a big deal about it in the film. These minor gripes aside this movie really was pretty decent; it’s an original storyline with some really great fighting scenes and special effects. Some of the characters created for this film were really very impressive like the character of Markus played by Tony Curran, not only did he do a great job with the acting (especially considering the dialogue was weak at times) but the creature he turned into when he wasn’t in his human form was just great, probably one of the best vampire creatures so far in film. The same can be said of the hybrid Michael; his transformed state was also very original as well as impressive. Id have to say the best character of course is that of Selena played by Kate Beckinsale, not only is she sexy in her all leather outfits but she makes for a great action star and all around dedicated bad-ass in this movie. It probably helps that her last three big movies were all action films about vampires, so she's probably pretty comfortable at this point. In fact the only downfall I found to her character is they don’t really let you get to know her on a personal level as she's always running, fighting, or angry about her past. But that aside she did a wonderful job with her role of a scorned Lycan exterminator.

After doing a little research on the screen writer for these two films, I can see how it worked out so well. Turns out the screenwriter Danny McBride used to be a stuntman and then stunt coordinator years, so I am assuming when he wrote this he wrote around the wonderfully choreographed action scenes. He also seems to work well with the Director Len Wiseman who, before these films had no movie directing credits. So all in all if you liked the first Underworld movie then I can positively say you’re going to like Underworld Evolution, aside from a slight overload in facts and some lighting negatives I really enjoyed this movie, and if you didn’t like the first film then you probably shouldn’t waste your time on this one. Now as far as extras on this DVD there’s quite a few. Almost an hour and a half actually, and its some real good stuff including The hybrid theory visual effect featurete, a stunt featurete, making monsters roar, a whole lot of dec3ent commentary, a music video and much more. Needless to say there’s no lacking in that department. Underworld Evolution Is on DVD on sale all over America now and I highly suggest you add it to your collection a soon as possible. - Dean Martell.