It's weaker than the first in almost every way, making it feel like a franchise installment sequel, but it still has a lot of what made the first a classic.

The caveat is that the visuals in general, and the special and practical effects are still fantastic, along with the visual style and the 4K copy I watched streaming on Bravia Core looks fantastic. It's "dark", but there's always high visibility even in a lit room.

The weakness comes in the storytelling and editing/shot length—it all just feels rushed. The film is gorgeous, with great action cinematography and crisp, dramatically lit shots of the actors and creatures, and creature-characters, but the shots are all too short when the bullets aren't flying, like it's in a hurry to get to the next scene. There's also some cheesy B-horror movie style rando vampire chick nudity/violence that just feels trashy and out of place in Underworld.

Tanis is great, though. And the love scene between Scott and Kate is beautifully and sensually shot and edited, with I think the perfect use of score and audio editing; just a little of the initial lip smacking, and then the scene audio fades out, replaced by score.

Another big weak point to me was both the out of left field casting of Derek Jacobi as Corvinus, and the fact that his character was such a passive limp sock of a man. I remember being disappointed when I first went to the theater all super hyped up. Compare that to Tony Curran's intense but human Markus, or Bill Nighy's un-fucking-forgettable and iconic turn as Victor—or even Zita Görög's Amelia. All of them seemed bigger than life and like ancient, otherworldly, human-shaped horrors. And then there's fucking "I cAn'T KiLl mY oWn cHiLdReN!" David the Gnome. Yeah, well Selene sliced dark daddy Victor's face in half, you sack o' potatoes.

It had been a while since I'd seen this film, but, re-watching it now I think that _Rise of the Lycans_ stands above this one. Scott Speedman doesn't have much opportunity to be interesting given the writing and pace, whereas Michael Sheen really gets to shine in a ~genre~ film. But here, it's still great seeing Kate lady-run in strappy goth platforms and then do cool wire-work in full view of the camera, never blinking whilst firing an array of European automatic weaponry.

Oh Brother!

The sequel to cult fave Underworld (2003) finds vampire warrior Selene (Kate Beckinsale) and half werewolf Michael (Scott Speedman) unravelling the truth about their respective blood lines. Just what caused the feud between the vampires and the lycans?

Unsurprisingly reviews for this sequel are mixed, it's either a smart action popcorner that was warranted, or it's a huge let down after the first film. Personally I'm in the first camp, personally because it does pretty much the same things, only the story has a bit of complexity about it to try and bluff us that it's cerebral.

For a film about vampires and werewolves at war it delivers all that is required in the modern era. There's lots of high energy action, blood and guts galore, CGI overdrive, fast pacing and a sexy lead actress fronting the piece. The story ticks along nicely, introducing new and interesting characters, while flashbacks fill in the gaps for any newcomers to the series. The main villain is one bad-ass winged mofo, a genuine terror that our protagonists have right to fear, and the finale is as expected a bonkers array of bloody chaos.

Smartly put together by director Len Wiseman and coolly photographed by Simon Duggan (steel blues and greys), it isn't ground breaking cinema, but it's a wail of a time for those with expectation levels set at popcorn bonanza. 7/10

I'm sorry but I've denied myself this for far too long. _Underworld: Evolution_ is a cinematic masterpiece and I will fight to the death to defend it.

(I won't actually fight to the death to defend it, or even really try to defend it at all. I know I am in the vast minority here, but I absolutely love this film.)

_Final rating:★★★★½ - Ridiculously strong appeal. I can’t stop thinking about it._

7.5/10
First this is definitely the best and most exciting one yet with little to no pacing issues. The cgi was definitely the cleanest so far and was actually pretty darn good.
This style and pacing would have done wonders
for UW rise of the Lycans and the first UW.

I'm still not invested in the hole love thing going on I have Twilight for all that.
I'm here to see Vamps and Lycans have at it, oh and Hybrids.

Kate/Selene is still Awesome and definitely the highlight of the hole franchise if not for her and her performance this franchise would be boring and suck.

What does however make these movies good instead of great is:

Be clear on what kills Vamps and Lycans, it makes absolutely no sense in how they all die and it's as though they make it up on every death just for the plot.
How they take damage and heal from it is sketchy at best, Selene took sunlight healed in a sec, she took a pump action to the mid section and walked it off in seconds (even her outfit healed from it),
but gets stabbed in the shoulder in number one and passes out and crashes the car then her heart stopped after drowning, but then she also jumps out of a helicopter in this one a swims for ages, no mask are oxygen needed, it's all just very inconsistent.
Stop pissing all over the Lore/rules that they have set for themselves, they clearly stated that a bite from both is certain death,
Mixing the blood and all that but now anyone
can be a Hybrid if they wish.
Just give me the other blood and off we go.
If you want it a certain way then don't lay down
the rules another way.

I can suspend my disbelief to a certain point and justify and make the dots connect in my own mind,
But that only goes so far before even I start to question.

Still it's still the best installment so far and it definitely moved along the smoothest to get us through all 3 acts, now let's see how UW Awakening fairs.