Underworld Evolution

I thought all of Lucian's stuff was just from the first movie. I don't remember seeing him in anything new.

That was pretty much my feeling too. Its good for what it is and doesn't really need to be anything different.

 

Lucian definetly had a few new shots. One that stood out in my mind was him sitting down with that vampire outcast.

 

No, I'm sure of it now. I went tonight to see it again and watched for new shots of Lucian and there definately aren't any. Some skillful editing to make you think there are new ones but he definatly doesn't have any new shots. For instance in the scene you mention there is a quick glimpse of "him" that goes by too fast to see then the shot from the first one when the elevator doors open.

 

You could be right. I was really tired when I saw it so that could explain it. Michael Sheen is listed in the credits though, which leads me to believe that it's new and not archive footage.

 

It's skillful editing. I've seen it three times now and the new shots of Lucian are leftover stock footage from the first film, just reedited and superimposed throughout....

 

When I was watching it again as I said I was thinking about if Lucian was in it or not I though "duh, he's lying on the slab." When that scene came up though I noticed (again because I was looking) that they didn't show anything but the chin down and then a couple of shots showing the long hair. Long hair, rough beard, my mind put it together as Lucian (or more accurately the actor that played him) but it wasn't. Kind of cool.

 

I'm assuming it was White Wolf as even though I only have a very basic familiarty with it thanks to the Vampire:The Masquerade:Bloodlines game, there are many similarities between the original and the game of Vampire. However as I never saw the first one I'm not sure that the similarities are more than that of the fact that they both concern Vampires and Werewolves and they both have a modern setting.

 

I'm pretty sure that's the one my roommate mentioned. Wikipedia has this to say about it:

The movie was subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by White Wolf, Inc. and Nancy A. Collins claiming the setting was too similar to the Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse games both set in their World of Darkness setting: White Wolf filed 17 counts of copyright infringement, and claimed over 80 points of unique similarity between White Wolf's game systems and the movie. White Wolf, Inc. also claimed the script was very similar to a story called Love of Monsters (1994) which they published and was written by Nancy A. Collins. [1] A PDF file of White Wolf's filing can be read here: [2]

 

White Wolf could do that with every movie in the genre that comes out. When you build up that much of a library your toes are going to get stepped on everyonce in awhile.

Edit: That court filing is pretty interesting actually. Some seem like legitimate claims most seem a little on the ridiculus side. "In World of Darkness some vampires move with amazing speed. In Underworld some vampires move with amazing speed".

 

Saw this one today..

..and quite honestly, i enjoyed it.. Even more then i thought i was going to (and i went in expecting to kind of like it)..

Of course you have to check your brain at the door.. (Where exactly WERE they, anyways? I mean, i thought the first movie took place in the USA, but then at the beginning (seemingly starting right where the first ended), it seems like they're 20 minutes away from GERMANY, or... sweden, or denmark, or SOMETHING.. where were they?? And then later on they're talking FRENCH on a pier..

I mean, maybe this means that the whole first movie took place in England, but then why the heck did Scott Speedman and his doctor buddy not have an english accent?

And okay...How exactly was Corvinus an immortal? What was it that he did? Was he, like, the HIGHLANDER or something?

Maybe i'm putting too much thought into that.

I hope they DO follow thru and make a third film in the series, and they give us more backstory in that one..I loved the opening to this one, getting to see Viktor again, and Amelia... Man, it's too bad they killed HER off in the first movie, cause she looked like a real asskicker of a vixen in the past.

It's too bad they killed Kraven.. I think there was more they could do with that character, but...ha.. What a way to go.

I do wish they would've left Speedman dead, though. I thought that would've been a gutsy way to go.

But if *HE'S* not really dead, does that mean that maybe Markus is still alive, too? (Although it's gonna take him awhile to patch himself up again.. What a ridiculous wild finale )

I liked the first one. And while it was more coherent then this one, this one was a much more entertaining movie...

They need to find a way to bring back Sophia Myles, now, though...

Too bad they killed the Exiled historian, too. Man, i wanna get exiled!

 

Budapest. Both took place in Budapest. The second one takes place like 1 hour after the first so not much time for country hopping. The adaptation said that Micheal was an American doctor working in Hungry but it never really said why.

Corvinus's immortality was explained in the first movie. Its not much of an explanation but that's true of just about anything these days. "a direct descendant of Alexander Corvinus... Hungarian, a warlord... who came to power in the early seasons of the fifth century. Just in time to watch a plague ravage his village. He alone survived. Somehow, his body was able to change the disease... mold it to his benefit. He became the first true immortal. And years later, he fathered at least two children... who inherited the same trait."

I too would like to see another movie but after this one I don't know how you could. The way they tied pretty much everyone's story together meant that pretty much everything got resolved in Evolution. You could do a prequel but it seems like everything we needed to know we got told between the two. You could do a sequel but where would it end then? With the new hybrid you could do a lot but it would be separate from everything that came before so it would kind of ring hallow (not to mention be an awful lot like Blade).

 

The ending mentioned vampire clans scrambling to fill a power vacuum, which might be interesting and I assume would be the subject of the third film (the end narration of the 1st one was, after all, the plot of Evolution). Although I don't really see how a single clan being killed off means the other clans would be in disarray.

 

I don't know what they were talking about at the end. It almost sounds like they were talking about the lines between warewolves and vampires not any one coven or vampire clan.

Even then it doesn't end with a "cliffhanger" end like the first one but more of a Terminator ending (when it was close ended before T2).

I'm sure they could do a sequel, or a prequel, or a sequel prequel (prequel sequel?) but it just seems like you wouldn't have any tie to the first two. Just its crazy choas and everyone is fighting but now there is a vampire that can walk in day to fight it all.

 

I have a few questions about this movie.

Just saw it tonight, overall it was alright. Nothing to rave about, but it did it's job as a good sequel, and I enjoy it much. Now (not sure if spoilers are allowed, so I'm blacking them out):

Vampires can only be killed if decapitated, exposed to sunlight, or staked through the heart. Obviously some expections can be made, but in this movie (and the first!) it seems like they went down quite easily. More-or-less, this was in the first movie, but is there a reason I missed for this? Same for the Lykens (spelling?)? Did the director sort of use his own set of rules with this, and bend the mythology of Vampires and Werewolves, a bit? I did notice Selene was effected by sun-light, though.

In the first movie (sorry to back track) Selene had a reflection more than once in the movie, was this just...an error? Or again, the director messed with the mythology, again?

Finally, I know it was mentioned, and I could look foolish for this, but why would Markus just hand the Vampires over to Viktor when he knew full well that he was the original Vampire, and not Viktor? To add to this, Viktor had William locked up, and yet he still sort of fell in line with Viktor. Why was this??

Thank you, in advance.

~Vassago

 

Well there is no real mythology per say.

Almost everyone who has ever made a movie or written a book has their own take on the vampire myth. What kills an Anne Rice Vampire isn't the same as what kills a Buffy Vampire. Blade, Van Helsing, The Breed, Dracula, etc all use different takes on the same myth. Underworld wasn't any different. They had their own take on what could and couldn't kill a Vampire. Stakes don't do anything but sunlight does. Short of that the general rule was that you're going to die if you can't regenerate from it. A gun shot won't do much but get your head ripped off or skull crushed in and you aren't going to growing new ones of those back.

Oh and they have reflections (which incidentally was one of the similarities that White Wolf sued over).

Didn't really have much of a choice. Like Alexander said, it was never his coven. Basically Markus screwed up. He wanted a powerful military leader and a strong army which is why he turned Viktor and his army but obviously they are going to remain loyal to Viktor. He didn't hand it over as much as Viktor took over.

 

We know from the first movie that there seemed to be Covens for both Viktor and Amelia, and given the implications of Evolution it's likely that Marcus didn't have one himself but used Viktor's. That though doesn't mean that there might not have been other smaller covens and/or clans that were not under the direct control of the 3 Elders. Some might have been allied to the larger ones, but when the culling of both was finished at the end of Evolution then I'm guessing that it would now become an open slather for those with ambitions like Kraven's to take control.

 

No, not quite. At least thats not how I understood it.

We only knew of two "covens" in the first movie. The one that we were following that was ruled over by the three elders on a rotating basis and "the new world coven" which was never really explained (which could possibly the basis of a new movie seeing as we followed the other two elders). I kind of got the impression from the first one that Amelia was just on a diplomatic mission of sorts to the new world coven but I've heard others say she was getting ready to move out on her own and say see you later to the other two.

So at the end of Evolution the only coven that we've seen was basically wiped out. They'd be no one there to fill any void which doesn't really matter because there would be no void to fill.

The more I think about what she said at the end and what they've talked about in the first movie its clearer they aren't talking about vampires rushing to fill a power void but they're talking about further fighting between vampires and werewolves.

First of all when they talk clans that's what they are talking about. The Lycan clan and the Vampire clan. So "the lines between the clans have been blurred" is hey we've got a guy that's half vampire half lycan, another now dead guy that's the same but slightly more vampire-y, and now me that's Vampire and human. On top of that the reasons for the war have been exposed as lies and political in fighting. So everything that has been for 16 centuries is now totally different. So yeah there is bound to be some argument about where to go from here. But what does it matter to Seline? She can go on picnics to the park now.

 

Aha. Thank you very much. Now that you mention it, that explanation about Corvinus' immortality DOES sound familiar. Has anyone watched the extended director's cut of the original? Does it explain any other backstory? If so, i'm almost tempted to check it out.

The mythology of these films is probably the best part!

I think the obvious sequel material would be.... I dunno.. I figure Selene is probably pregnant after this one, ya know?

Seeing how she opts to shape "the future" as Corvinus said, would be interesting...

I'm trying to think of how they could possibly work the past into that again, for more flashbacks...I'm not quite sure on that front...Maybe figure out some fashion to display Selene's training as a Death Dealer.. Work in some long lost love or something..

I dunno, i'm scrambling here

 

Sounds pretty good to me actually. I'd think that could work.

The extended cut doesn't go much more into the back story that I remember. All I recall from the last time I watched it was a bit more about the blond. It does develop characters more and all around makes it a better picture. Hopefully Evolution benefits from the same treatment.

 

Just for the record, the extended version is not a director's cut (I believe Len Wiseman points that out on the commentary for it), so I wouldn't be surprised if the studio had more to do with its release than him. At any rate, the extreme majority of the changes in it are establishing shots and short reaction shots of various characters, some of which help the film's flow, some of which hinder it, and some of which don't really make any difference, in my opinion. The more major changes I remember are:

-Michael's backstory: after Selene tells the story of how she became a vampire and why she hates the Lycans, Michael talks about the woman in the pictures in his apartment and explains why he chose to live his life in the way he is.

-More Erika: as weezer said, a lot of the added stuff involves Erika, the blonde vampire. I've always felt that her character is pointless - she only does a couple things in the entire movie that are of any importance, and that could easily have been written to occur in some other way. I love how all the other characters in the movie are always dismissing her. Anyway, she is in a lot of the quick shots I mentioned before, and she also has a sex scene with Kraven that is far more abrupt than Selene and Michael's in Evolution.

-Selene and Michael kiss for the second time: after Selene rescues Michael from the Lycan hideout, they kiss, with Lucian watching.

-Lucian begins to transform: at one point after he has been shot by Kraven, Lucian's hand begins to turn into a clawed one and he fights it back, saying "not yet." It's possible that this is him beginning to turn into a hybrid, but he's never shown injecting Amelia's blood, so I can't say for sure.

-Singe (the Lycan scientist) explains Lucian's plan: when Selene has him in front of Viktor and Kraven, Singe's story is more developed and drawn out. It's not by a lot, but it does explain the science behind the whole hybrid thing more clearly than in the original release.

-The history of the war: when Selene goes into the vampire's library and looks through the ancient book, searching for information about Lucian, there are more shots of the book's contents, allowing for a slightly better glimpse into the war.

That's all I remember off the top of my head - and like I said, it's not every specific detail, as the majority of the changes are only seconds in length.

 

Thats the way most extended cuts are. A minute here a minute there. Its odd how sometimes it actually helps. As opposed to the extended cut of Stargate where they just add a shot of dead guys.

 

Did anyone see the international poster for this one?

I ordered it off the web the other day. It continues the current trend of making the international poster better then the one for the US release.

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Underworld2evolution.jpg]

 

I've seen it, and I agree with you about it being better than the US one - though I think the original film's US poster is better than both of the ones for Evolution, I still like them. When I first saw that one, it was reported at www.impawards.com in the format you've presented it in. In the past few days, however, I noticed that the image on that site was altered so that there is a 2 after the word "Underworld" - yet the "Evolution" subtitle remains. When you get yours I would be interested to hear if it has the 2 or not.

 

From the Stargate extended cut, didn't it just add the Egyptians throwing off Ra in the very beginning, and then a shot of Kurt Russell looking at one of the alien soldiers found with the Stargate?

 

All I remeber was them lifting up the stargate and finding the dead solders underneith and then O'neill looked at it in the base. Thats was it.

I'll see if it has a '2' or not. I hadn't seen it with a '2' following the title.