Underworld Evolution

The first film was a bit of a sleeper hit that appealed to the Goth crowd and ended up doing quite well in both the box office and DVD sales. I should know I did both, and it was primarily to see Kate Beckinsale in a cat suit.

Because the first was a sleeper hit they had to somehow find holes in the story to be able to make a sequel so they introduce two brothers I don't think were mentioned in the first film; Marcus, the first vampire and William, the first werewolf. At the start of the film once all the decapitations are out of the way we see William the Werewolf get captured and imprisoned in a tomb built by Selina's (Kate's character) father. Marcus the vampire decides to rest but is awoken by actions from the first film and thinks unlocking his brother would be a good idea.

Selina, who is on the run following the first film with her wolf-vampire beau then finds herself embroiled in a new silly plot where she has to prevent William from being released and killing lots of people along the way.

The film is actually not too bad and certainly deserves its 18 rating, quite refreshing considering they aren't many these days because you can't make money off the kids. There are weak holes in the plot that let the story down, for example they suddenly decide they need to meet up with a librarian who hasn't been seen for hundreds of years but ends up being a short drive away in a clearly advertised Range Rover.

There is plenty of violence and many of the deaths had me thinking "Fatality" but that's probably because I played too much Mortal Kombat when I was younger. There was one scene where I genuinely went "whooo" like American cineman audiences do. If you decide to go and see this you'll probably do the same thing. Let me know what bit you think it was in the comments box below.

The action scenes are good overall, the standout one being the chase and fight on the truck. The only downside is that I don't know if they'll be able to squeeze another sequel out of it, a shame given that the character is starting to become established but maybe they'll just introduce some new family members that we don't know about - mummy perhaps.

Worth seeing especially if you enjoyed the first one.