Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic
Netitor of The Word NetPaper
http://thewordnetpaper.tripod.com
walkernet@gmail.com

http://cinemaviews.tripod.com
http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews/cinemaviews.html

Intelligent Design can be seen in "Underworld: Evolution," the latest in the vampire franchise starring Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman. The sequel to the entertaining hit about a centuries-long war between vampires and werewolves raises the stakes, and not just the ones driven into the hearts of the bloodsuckers...

I like it when a sequel does it right. By that I mean they raise the stakes much more, expand the character's attributes and lay the groundwork for many more follow-ups.

I always liked the first "Underworld" movie and saw it several times in the theatre which is my preferred way of attending movies, especially special effects laden spectaculars such as this.

It also continues the tradition of having strong female Sheroes in lead roles. The young males who comprise the bulk of the moviegoing audience who attends these films rather prefer to look at the sprayed- on black leather bodysuit of Selen's vampiress than some guy flexing his muscles. I know I would, the backers of "Brokeback Mountain" notwithstanding.

So you have Elektra from "Daredevil;" Charlize Theron in "Aeon Flux";Trinity from "The Matrix" trilogy; Lara Croft; Elektra; Halle Berry's Catwoman; and the current "BloodRayne" with Kristen Lokken, the "Terminator 3's" villainess. Then there is the emphasis on Naomi Watts' Faye Wray/Ann Darrow in the current remake of "King Kong."

In one of the best re-imaginings and extensions of two series, newest Sci Fi Sistah Sanaa Lathan of the upcoming Salt-and-Pepper romantic comedy "Something New" with Simon Baker of "Land of The Dead" was the new Ripley in the "Aliens Versus Predator" merging, joining forces with the Hunters of Men against the superadaptive Aliens! Lathan was also a femme fatale in "Blade," and opposite Denzel Washington in the noir-ish Florida caper "Out of Time."

Selene was a vampire Deathdealer, an assassin of the Lycans, or Werewolves whose war has been ongoing for several hundred years. In the first movie she falls for Michael Corvin, an ancestor of the Lycans who is being sought for his special blood line for nefarious purposes.

Kate Beckinsale stars again as Selene and is a Britisher who made small artsy movies such as "54" until she co-starred as the woman in the triangle in the unfairly maligned WWII epic "Pearl Harbour." (I'm a different kind of Film Critic, I'm one that actually likes the kind of movies that normal people who like movies like, and who doesn't dislike the public for liking them).

Beckinsale is a nice little package who could give Halle Berry a run for the money in the sweet little package department. She still has the skintight black leather fight suit, with holsters for her two automatics and throwing knives, and a long black duster cloak that trails behind her when she leaps off buildings or bridges and lands light as a feather. Trained in the martial arts and many types of weaponry she'd give Trinity and/or Elektra some trouble.

Len Wiseman directs with a nice frenzied pace during the action but there are quieter moments, particularly when Michael and Selene find an old mine and lay up, so to speak, after they've gotten her out of the sun and he works on the zipper of that skintight leather suit of hers. Their future may have a part of "Underworld: Evolution's" sequels in the series, because transformation and becoming is very much a part of it.

Like the most excellent series "Blade" also made from a comic book series, there are all sorts of Vampire-centric religious and historical trappings, with archive keepers, stylish vaults with intricate locks hiding forbidden libraries showing a whole hidden civilization that is given plausibility.

A blood borne vampire message and DNA Internet is when they can pass on memories through their blood when another one bites them. There were some flaws I spotted, as the movie showed some having memories they weren't in a position to see. But they were a good technique for drawing attention to some of the complicated plot trails, or even the obvious that could use a bit of revisiting. Scenes from the first "Underworld" were shown in sepia tones or in surveillance cameras using blood memory and surveillance tapes.

A powerful new character is that of Markus, the last Vampire Elder who was in hibernation, hanging upside down in the bat heritage he has. Markus is a twin; his brother Michael and he were the two divergent roads of Alternate humanity. One brother was bitten by a wolf, the other a bat. Both as the Originals are very powerful, although William is a wild beast.

Markus the smarter brother is shown as a very dangerous and crafty villain, flying through the air with his leathery wings and swooping down on prey, or busting down barn loft doors to get in on some delirious with fear penned horses, needing to feed. A lot. And refuges to keep out of the rays of the sun as he hunts down the fugitives Selene and Michael as they race to find out the significance of the medallion, some gaps in Selene's own childhood, and try and convince the vampire leadership they deserve to live.

Like most of the other actors with excellent speaking ways he was a stage actor, probably Shakespearean. They are good at delivering lines at length, not that an actioner like "Underworld: Evolution" needed to draw on that. In fact, the movie wasn't prescreened by critics. Usually this is taken as a bad sign, but I think its a growing relaxation that the studios don't need the blessing of the Media Gatekeepers to tell the public what to like and to go see. The movie was the top grosser last weekend.

Right now they're trying to sell the American public on the Sodomite western cowboy love story of the 1960s "Brokeback Mountain" and George Clooney's political works in the 1950s drama "Goodnight and Good Luck" about the McCarthy Era and journalist icon Edward R. Morrow and the politically charged "Syriana" about US intelligence mishaps and oil policy.

The makers of the "Underworld" movies will have another film (hear, hear!) and this time I would expect them to expand on the role of the Vampire royal line such as Amelia, a powerful Medieval warrior. When the ancestor of the werewolves in a sort of Isaac and Ishmael is too powerful to control they command "send in Amelia!!" Adept with a crossbow and mostly silent except when issuing commands to her forces a flashback on her life's exploits would be welcome indeed.

We actually saw Amelia's character before in the first "Underworld" in the Sealed Train that was attacked after being betrayed by Kraven's forces. Amelia, silent and delicately decadent looking in a European sort of fashion, wore the elaborate jewelry and greenish diaphanous robes as she was in a procession being led into another train, and was one of the nobles heading to the mansion for the big sit down with Viktor, who also reappears. Of course this is in flashbacks, as the movie recaps in the beginning and throughout other portions of "Underworld: Evolution."

Viktor is played by Bill Nighy who is a British stage actor who also has had comic turns in last summer's hits "Shaun of the Dead" where like here his gaunt and steely eyed demeanor makes you think he's of the walking dead; and in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

The movie borrows -- or pays an homage, take your pick -- to conventions such as Romeo and Juliet, and Tristan und Isolde the latter of which gets its own film treatment currently from the old tale of forbidden doomed love across different races or tribes.

Michael Corvin, played by Scott Speedman from "xXx: State of the Union" is of the Corvinus clan, and the common ancestor to all vampires and Lycans. Just as Ibrahim, or as the Hebrews and their splintered-off Christian sects call him, "Abraham," is the common ancestor of three of the world's top religions, so was Corvinus their common thread.

Kate Beckinsale's Selene was an assassin who always did what she was told and always grateful to Viktor, of the vampire nobility and ruling Council who saved her after her whole family was slain when their Medieval farmstead was attacked. She starts to question what was commonly accepted, and is led to what her vampire clan has judged to be traitorous actions, the least of which is loving a Lycan!

But this is a special one, a hybrid like Blade who has all of their powers but none of their weaknesses. But in Michael's case he is a Werewolf with super strength, agility and speed, and like Vampires he has amazing regenerative powers. When he starts to turn his skin goes black like his eyes and fingernails; he grows no hair but can leap like nobody's business. Unlike the vampires but like Wesley Snipe's Blade of that trilogy he is a DayWalker, and the deadly ultraviolet rays of sunlight has no effect on them. But both need blood or serum substitute to feed otherwise you wouldn't want to be around them.

Still, there are some new rules Michael has to learn and some of them rankle him. He's handed a packet of blood from Selene, like those intravenous ones from a donor. (How and from who they get these things aren't explained in "Underworld: Evolution," and we'd rather not know!).

"Michael you are unique. There's never been a hybrid like you before" Selene tells Corvin.

"Your powers may be limitless, we just don't know. But you'll need to feed off blood or you'll grow weaker by the minute. Normal food might even be lethal to you. But unless you learn to anticipate your cravings you would start to attack humans. Believe me, you don't want that on your conscience."

Michael when he battles has the fury of a Lycan, and prefers blunt force battle, snapping off a large werewolf's snout like King Kong and the T-Rex. Snarling and leaping, with a pair of tight pants like Lon Chaney's 1940s werewolf

The movie adds a lot to the plate of the franchise, and almost makes we Kate Beckinsale fans forget her atrocious Transylvanian accent in "Van Helsing" which may be a failed franchise that fell down at the gate with "X-Men United's" Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman.

If New Orleans resident Ann Rice's Vampire cycle continues its spotty film outings (Aliyah's "Queen of the Damned" was a sort of precede/continuation to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt's "Interview with the Vampire") there may be another franchise to join the "Underworld," "Blade," ["¿Van Helsing?"] and "Highlander" series.

All these cinema series have in common is the notion that there are Eternals, immortal beings who have been right along us for millennia. They also draw power from others for their sustenance, even the eternals in the Highlander movies.

What I'd like to see more than a matchup with Elektra, Aeon, Trinity, Lara Croft, Elektra, Catwoman and BloodRayne, would be the merging (ala "Aliens vs. Predator") of the universes of "Blade" and "Underworld!" If there can be a "Freddy vs. Jason" merging then anything is possible. --kjw

---------------

Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic
Netitor of The Word NetPaper
http://thewordnetpaper.tripod.com
thewordnetpaper@excite.com

http://cinemaviews.tripod.com
http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews/cinemaviews.html
http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views