2006 American action horror film
Underworld: Evolution
|
---|
Theatrical release poster
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Directed by
| Len Wiseman
|
---|
Screenplay by
| Danny McBride
|
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Story by
|
- Len Wiseman
- Danny McBride
|
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Based on
| |
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Produced by
| |
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Starring
| |
---|
Cinematography
| Simon Duggan
|
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Edited by
| Nicolas Del Toth
|
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Music by
| Marco Beltrami
|
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Production
companies
| |
---|
Distributed by
| Sony Pictures Releasing
[2]
|
---|
Release dates
|
- January 11, 2006
(
2006-01-11
)
(
Cinerama Dome
)
- January 20, 2006
(
2006-01-20
)
(United States)
|
---|
Running time
| 106 minutes
|
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Country
| United States
[2]
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Language
| English
[2]
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Budget
| $45 million
[3]
|
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Box office
| $113.4 million
[3]
|
---|
Underworld: Evolution
is a 2006 American
action horror film
directed by
Len Wiseman
from a screenplay by
Danny McBride
, based on a story by Wiseman and McBride.
[4]
It is the sequel to
Underworld
(2003) and the second installment in the
Underworld
film series
. The film stars
Kate Beckinsale
,
Scott Speedman
,
Tony Curran
,
Shane Brolly
,
Steven Mackintosh
,
Derek Jacobi
, and
Bill Nighy
. The plot follows
Selene
and Michael, again played by Beckinsale and Speedman, respectively, as they fight to protect the Corvinus bloodline from its hidden past.
Underworld: Evolution
premiered at the
Cinerama Dome
in Los Angeles, California on January 11, 2006, and was released in the United States on January 20, by
Sony Pictures Releasing
. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed over $113 million worldwide against a production budget of $45 million.
The film was followed by the
prequel
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
in 2009.
Plot
[
edit
]
In 1202, an army led by the three vampire
elders
(
Markus
,
Viktor
, and
Amelia
) arrives at a village full of
Werewolves
. Viktor and Amelia capture their target, Markus's twin brother,
William Corvinus
, the first and most powerful werewolf. Despite Markus's defiance, Viktor orders that William be forever imprisoned in a secret location.
In the present day, vampire
Selene
takes Michael to a safe house so that she can confront the vampire
regent
Kraven
; she plans to stop Kraven from killing Markus. Markus awakens before Kraven arrives and kills him and his men. Lorenz Macaro, an elderly man who is really an immortal and forefather to both the vampire and Lycan races, sends in a team to investigate the aftermath of the battle in the Lycans' lair. When Macaro examines Viktor's corpse he finds a metal disc which matches a pendant originally worn by
Sonja
. The other half of the pendant is possessed by Michael after Lucian's death.
Using the knowledge of computers obtained from Kraven's blood, Markus tracks Selene and Michael down and attacks them, but they evade him and hide in a warehouse. There, Selene and Michael share their feelings and have passionate sex. Knowing that the pendant is important to Markus, Michael and Selene set out to discover why he wants it. Selene recalls that she saw it as a child, but does not know its significance. They travel to the hideout of the exiled vampire historian Andreas Tanis.
Tanis reveals that Markus was the first vampire, one of the three sons of
Alexander Corvinus
, the first immortal. Markus was bitten by a bat and metamorphosed into a vampire, while William was bitten by a wolf and metamorphosed into a werewolf. The third son remained human and gave rise to a line of mortal descendants including Michael, who became the first Lycan-Vampire
hybrid
. The first werewolves created by William were entirely feral and unable to return to their human forms. Due to William's destructiveness, Markus approached Viktor, then a dying mortal warlord, and offered to metamorphose him and his army into vampires in exchange for tracking down and stopping William, and destroying those he had infected. Viktor did not kill the brothers because he was led to believe that doing so would result in the immediate extinction of all vampires and Lycans. Tanis further reveals that Selene's father was the architect who built William's prison and that the pendant is the key. Viktor killed Selene's family because they knew the prison's location, but metamorphosed Selene into a vampire with the location of the prison encoded in her blood. Tanis then refers Selene and Michael to Macaro for help. After Selene and Michael leave, Markus arrives and drinks Tanis' blood to learn Selene and Michael's location, killing Tanis.
Visiting Macaro, Selene and Michael discover he is Alexander Corvinus. Alexander reveals that he has devoted his entire immortal life to keeping the Vampire-Lycan war a secret, and refuses to assist Selene in killing his sons. Markus arrives, fights Michael and impales him. He learns the location of William's prison by drinking Selene's blood before mortally wounding his father and obtaining the other half of the pendant. He mocks his father's refusal to help William, revealing that he intends, with William, to rule the world as the master of a race of vampire-Lycan hybrids. At Alexander's bidding, Selene drinks his blood, enhancing her physical strength and healing abilities to a level equivalent to that of a hybrid. Afterwards, Alexander blows up his ship, killing himself.
Selene, aboard Alexander's helicopter, leads his team to the prison to confront and destroy Markus, but he has already freed William. In the ensuing battle, Michael, presumed dead and carried aboard the helicopter, awakens and joins the fight in his hybrid form, killing William by ripping his head off. Selene engages Markus in hand-to-hand combat, killing him by pushing him into the rotor blades of the team's crashed helicopter.
After the battle, Selene discovers that Alexander's blood granted her hybrid abilities, including being immune to the effects of sunlight, which is lethal to vampires.
Cast
[
edit
]
Soundtrack
[
edit
]
Professional ratings
Review scores
|
---|
Source
| Rating
|
---|
Allmusic
| [5]
|
- Track listing
Release
[
edit
]
Box office
[
edit
]
The film opened at #1 on 3,207 screens with a weekend box office (January 20?22, 2006) of $26.9 million, for an average of $8,388 per theater.
[1]
As of March 12, 2006, the film had grossed a total of $62.3 million in the
United States
and $111.3 million worldwide.
[1]
Critical response
[
edit
]
As of August 31, 2021,
Underworld: Evolution
has a 17% overall approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
based on 104 reviews, with an
average rating
of 4/10. The site's consensus reads. The site's consensus reads, "A visual and aural assault on the senses, this vampire-werewolf sequel makes a lot of noise and features a heavy-handed, overly convoluted story."
[6]
Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
[7]
A few scenes of the film were shown in a panel at
Comic-Con
in
San Diego
, in July 2005; however, these scenes did not contain any plot spoilers of the script, with attendees only being informed about the new hybrids by production designer
Patrick Tatopoulos
. The preview was well-received as hundreds of fans waited hours to see a clip of the film, as well as
Kate Beckinsale
and the other stars.
[8]
Jeannette Catsoulis of
The New York Times
criticized the film's "steel-blue filter" and described it as "a monotonous barrage of computer-generated fur and fangs."
[9]
Peter Hartlaub of the
San Francisco Chronicle
began his review by saying, "you can tell that
Underworld: Evolution
is trying to be an artistic action-horror film, because every scene is bathed in the color blue," going on to say that the film is "an admirable attempt to test the boundaries of the genre," though is confusing and not fun to watch.
[10]
Home media
[
edit
]
The film was released on DVD on June 6, 2006,
[11]
and on Blu-ray on June 20, 2006.
[12]
Accolades
[
edit
]
Prequel and sequel
[
edit
]
The next film in the series, the prequel
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
, depicted the background history that led to the
Vampire
-
Lycan
War of the first and second films. A fourth and fifth film, the sequels to
Underworld: Evolution
, titled
Underworld: Awakening
and
Underworld: Blood Wars
, were released on January 20, 2012, and January 6, 2017, respectively.
[15]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Underworld: Evolution (2006)
.
Box Office Mojo
. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Underworld Evolution"
.
American Film Institute
. Retrieved
2017-03-25
.
- ^
a
b
"Underworld: Evolution"
.
The Numbers
. Retrieved
2017-03-25
.
- ^
"Underworld: Evolution (2006) - Len Wiseman | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related"
.
AllMovie
.
- ^
"Underworld Evolution (Original Soundtrack)"
.
Allmusic
.
- ^
Underworld: Evolution Movie Reviews, Pictures
.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved 2021-8-31.
- ^
"CinemaScore"
.
cinemascore.com
.
- ^
(July 18, 2005).
Comic-Con 2005: Underworld: Evolution Panel
.
IGN
. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
- ^
Catsoulis, Jeannette (January 21, 2006).
"The Vampires and Werewolves, Still Fighting Tooth and Nail"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Hartlaub, Peter (June 24, 2011).
"Vampires and werewolves get mopey in 'Underworld'
"
.
The San Francisco Chronicle
.
- ^
Arnold, Thomas (May 3, 2006).
"Blu-ray Titles Pushed Back to June"
.
hive4media.com
. Archived from
the original
on May 17, 2006
. Retrieved
September 28,
2019
.
- ^
https://highdefdiscnews.com/2018/05/19/underworld-evolution-blu-ray-review/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiWrdLI7ZnwAhXjaRUIHZtQDYIQFjABegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw2Q4MU67gSlP8JYXx5ZuLxJ
[
dead link
]
- ^
"
'Wedding Crashers' Tops MTV Awards"
.
CBS News
. June 5, 2006.
Archived
from the original on November 23, 2023
. Retrieved
November 23,
2023
.
- ^
Jacobs, Evan (10 October 2006).
"Spike TV's Scream Awards 2006 Winners!"
.
MovieWeb
. Watchr Media.
Archived
from the original on 18 May 2022
. Retrieved
12 August
2023
.
- ^
"Underworld 4 New Dawn movie"
. Teaser Trailer
. Retrieved
2011-03-26
.
External links
[
edit
]