03.17.06
Kate Beckinsale - need anything more be said?
I’m just back from watching Underworld 2, and now I will provide a very brief summary of my opinion of the movie. I hope you’ll forgive me when I descend into pathetic fanboyism for a moment. Here’s my rating of Underworld 2:
This paw is for having Kate Beckinsale in the lead role.
This one is for giving her vampire fangs and a very tight leather suit.
This is for including a scene without the suit.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Seriously though, it was by and large a 3/6-star movie. It was a very close sequel to the original, starting almost exactly where the last one left off, it was packed with solid action, interesting ideas, and most importantly, plenty of Kate Beckinsale. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that original, it didn’t have the same level of intrigue and, well, plot that made the other one interesting (along with Kate Beckinsale), it got a wee bit too epic near the end, and above all: It didn’t have the guts to kill off a main character. Spineless bloody playwrights.
Another major problem was that it revealed a ton of background info which turned out to be entirely unnecessary. The first movie gave you a feeling that there were centuries of backstory, but it barely even told you what you needed to know, instead leaving a lot of it up to your imagination. The sequel felt it necessary to spell it all out for you at the beginning, but left it at that :S
There was also a disappointing lack of interesting plot twists. Underworld sported several very interesting revelations, including one about the main character’s history that turned the story in an unexpected direction. Underworld 2 had sort of a weak little attempt at a similar surprise, but it never had any impact.
Lastly, Torsten has reminded me to mention a rather amusing error of continuity, in which they start the movie off in 1200 A.D. with a scene that clearly shows all three Vampire Ancients sitting around together on their respective horseys. This is funny because Victor - one of the Vampire Ancients - mentions that the vampires started an important tradition, according to which only one of the three Ancients is awake at a time, 1400 years ago, a period in time which is notable for taking place 600 years before 1200 A.D. I’m sure it can be explained away, but it’s much funnier to just call the writers on their slip-up and have a good laugh at their expense. Either way, I don’t really care enough about the movie’s universe to let a detail like this impact the score.
So yeah… it’s sort of a lukewarm experience, but I don’t regret spending the money, and I’ll probably pick it up when it’s released on DVD because, hey: Kate Beckinsale!
Underworld 2: Evolution
