Underworld Evolutions review *NO SPOILERS*

When I saw the previews for the first Underworld, I was excited. I have always enjoyed vampire movies, and the Whitewolf-style, cosmopolitan vampires who exist in a dark underworld centered around politics and scheming looked like a setting with unlimited potential for awesomeness. I was disappointed with the first Underworld, though, for the same reasons that I was disappointed with the sequels to the original Matrix movie. It just wasn't everything it could have been. It was like the creators knew that they had come up with a really cool idea, and then started slacking off because they thought that the whole movie would be cool just because of the setting. The Matrix sequels did the exact same thing. The result was weak action sequences, unimpressive vampires, and a forgettable plot. Judging solely from its own merits, the original movie was average. If you add in the coolness factor of the whole setup, it becomes above average, but then when you factor in my disappointment, it reverts back to being just an average action flick.

When I first saw the previes for Evolutions, it looked like more of the same to me. I was expecting a cool-looking, but ulimately unimpressive movie. I thought that the creators were going to get cocky due to the commercial success of the first movie, and churn out another mediocre action movie. However, I am both a sucker and an optimist when it comes to movies, and I will shell out my $7.50 to watch just about anything. Thus, I went to see Evolutions.

I was braced for disappointment when the movie started, but it quickly proved itself to be pretty damn good. Almost everything I didn't like about the first movie was fixed in the second movie. The action sequences are now pretty intense, and the players in them are all badasses. There are still a few scenes that I thought were too predictable and a little boring, but the majority are very good. The vampires are no longer little pussies who do nothing but hiss and then get owned. The annoying (and pointless) dialogue and characters have been removed. What's left definately isn't emmy-quality screenwriting, but it is pretty decent. You aren't going to be bored and annoyed at any point in this movie. Kate Beckinsale gets naked. It's basically everything from the first movie, except done better. If you liked the first movie (or even the idea of the first movie) at all, you should definately see this. I think that almost everyone on this board will enjoy it.