Wolf Awareness Week - Day 4

 

Underworld: Evolution

2006

D: Len Wiseman

**********

Pros: Art Direction, Practical Effects, Interesting Plot

Cons: Characters, Some Poorly-Integrated CGI

      I don’t regret not having done a review of Underworld for Wolf Week.  Despite ostensibly having werewolves in it, I didn’t see anything that remotely resembled anything lupine.  This movie, however, does have one actual werewolf in it, so I guess it’s fair game.  We first see this lycanthrope in a flashback that takes place in 1202.  A group of vampires including the original, Marcus Corvinus (Tony Curran), hunt Diamond Dogs in a town that was just massacred by the latter.  They capture Marcus’ brother William, a savage werewolf who has spawned the whole race.  Marcus watches sadly as the vampires torture the nearly uncontrollable monster to restrain it.  The movie can’t decide if it wants us to be frightened of William or feel sorry for him.  The camera avoids a clear shot of him, which is effective in a monster movie, but diminishes the attempted pathos.  Marcus attempts to put a stop to this, but he is rebuffed by Viktor (Bill Nighy).  Nighy’s appearance in the movie is fleeting, but he provides enough ham to feed a third-world country for a month.           

   

     Fast forward to present day Budapest, very shortly after the events of the first film.  Selene (Kate Beckinsale) and Michael (Scott Speedman) hide in a safe house while the former plans to return to the vampires’ mansion to confront Kraven (Shane Brolly).  She gives Michael a packet of blood to eat, but he seems reluctant to do so.  Of course, I would at least ask where the blood came from, but I don’t understand why these new vampires don’t just accept the fact that they need to drink blood.  She explains that if he doesn’t, he’ll be likely to feed on a human and says, “Believe me, you don’t want that on your head.”  I think this is the one instance where she seems capable of remorse.  She also warns him that normal food can be fatal, so what does he do when she leaves?

He attempts to go to a restaurant and eats, which causes him to become sick and attract the attention of some cops who have just seen a news report about him.  Then they chase him awhile until he’s reunited with Selene.

     Meanwhile, Marcus reawakens and kills Kraven.  He then begins a quest to find William, who has been locked away by Viktor in a prison so that he could never find and free him.  While he loves his brother, he doesn’t care that William will only kill more people if he is freed.  This is an interesting twist to have a villain whose motivation is actually very human and somewhat sympathetic.  However, when he confronts his father, Alexander Corvinus (Derek Jacobi), he goes on this megalomaniacal rant about he wants to become a god.  It seems rather odd considering that a flashback explained that Marcus’ original motivation to procure an army of vampires all those centuries ago was to fight William.  It just seems shoehorned into a character that is otherwise understandable.

     Early on in the film, Selene and Michael are confronted by Marcus, but they escape.  After a sex scene, they find the exiled Andreas Tanis (Steven Mackintosh) who fills them in on the history of Marcus and William.  He tells them that they were the sons of the first immortal Alexander Corvinus.  William was bitten by a wolf and Marcus by a bat.  If this is adding some sort of logic to the two races, then why is William a more savage beast than Marcus?  Aren’t wolves more advanced than bats?  They eventually meet with Alexander, who has been trying to clean up evidence of the war between the Diamond Dogs and the Vampires.  He has acquired a pendant from inside Viktor’s body which can be combined with the pendant obtained by Selene from Lucian (Michael Sheen) to open William’s prison.  The movie has a golden opportunity here to finally have Selene showing the remorse for killing Diamond Dogs for years, something I complained about in my review of Underworld.  Alexander calls her out on it to her face, and she just brushes him off, claiming it’s all his fault.  I was hoping this movie could salvage her character, but no.  Marcus arrives, takes the pendants, mortally wounds Alexander, and fights Michael to his apparent death (with provokes some real emoting from Beckinsale).  Before she goes with Alexander’s remaining cleaners to pursue Marcus, Alexander tells her to feed off his blood for enhanced powers before the “legacy” is gone from it.  Selene better watch her cholesterol intake, because there’s apparently a lot of cheese in it, too. 

     The movie’s plot has some interesting and clever twists.  Selene sometimes has flashbacks to her youth in this movie.  It turns out that her father was contracted by Viktor to build the secret prison which William was placed.  Of course, the secrecy gave him reason to murder his family outside bloodlust, as well.  With Viktor killed off in the first movie, Selene actually ends up being the only person alive who knows the location of the prison, even if she didn’t know the significance of her memories.  When she realizes this, she is unfortunately bitten by Marcus, who uses her blood-memory to find the place.  I must admit that the movie has one very effective emotional moment.  In the flashbacks a young Selene (or one of her sisters) draws a sun on one of the walls of the prison while it’s under construction.  When she and Alexander’s men come to the location for the final battle, she touches the drawing.  When one of them asks about it, she says, “It’s nothing.”

      Just in time for the finale, Marcus frees William and we finally get a good look at a real werewolf.

Now that is one of the best looking werewolves I’ve seen.  That is what the Lycans should’ve fucking looked like the whole damn time.  It almost seems like an apology for the previous movie’s terrible character design.  It’s too little, too late, though.  It’s only reserved for one creature, and he’s not even a character that we care about.  It would have been an interesting twist if the centuries of seclusion had allowed William to calm down and regain his mind.  That would have even justified giving Marcus a god complex, since William’s being a voice of reason would have been an ironic and surprising contrast to this. 

     In the ensuing battle, the Alexander’s henchman are all killed (they apparently forgot their silver bullets).  Michael comes back to life (because he is a magic black-face monster), fights and kills William.  Selene kills Marcus in a death scene that has way too many composite effects to be effectively visceral, despite how hard it tries.  After the battle the sun shines in, and Selene realizes she is immune to it now.  The movie ends with a closing narration that seems suspiciously similar to the one in T2.     

     Underworld: Evolution has a lot of strengths and it’s an improvement over the first movie.  The visual style is atmospheric.  The use of practical effects is very good.  Alexander’s helicopter and ship where all done with miniatures, and the effect is very convincing.  William Corvinus looks great, but there are some conspicuous CGI shots of him inserted into the shots of great puppet work.  Much like the previous movie, the CGI isn’t too well integrated.  The design and world-building are great.  I like the stylized old-style architecture, and the autopsy on Viktor’s body shows a clever design.  One problem is that the prison doesn’t look so secret, as it’s a big castle, and William’s casket is has an iris on the ceiling that any fool can climb into from the surface, so it doesn’t look so secure.  The plot is actually rather interesting and has some very clever twists.  Action is competent, but nothing to write home about.  Actors are well cast, even if their characters aren’t that nuanced. 

     That’s what really brings the movie down: the lack of good characters.  Selene is still too cold and remorseless to root for, and Michael’s just there being her love interest.  Marcus had some potential as a complex villain, but it was messed up with an uncharacteristic megalomania.  This really overshadows the other strengths of the movie, although I would consider this movie a guilty pleasure if it had much better action scenes.  Conversely, I thought Avengers had a lackluster plot and bland visuals, but I still enjoyed it for its memorable characters and their interactions with each other.  This just goes to show how important characters are to a story.                     

MEMORABLE QUOTES

VIKTOR: Your sympathy for this beast is FOOLISH.  You should have done things…myway.

[picking up a bra in Tanis’ “prison”]

SELENE: Your exile seems to be a bit more comfortable than I remember.

MARCUS: Please, sit.  There’s no need for this to be unpleasant.  I’ve always rather enjoyed your company.  [Tanis nervously glances toward his armory]  Now you’re being rude.

[Selene touches a picture of the sun in the catacombs she drew as a child]
DEATH DEALER: What's that?
SELENE: It's nothing.