Underworld returns… again

Beneath our shining world of holly locks and daffodils a war is being waged between werewolves and vampires. The cause is tantamount to nothing in particular and the outcome doesn’t much matter to us humans since we are neither werewolves nor vampires. However, we do make excellent spectators of the sport, so for a second time director Len Wiseman has given us front row seats to witness the final outcome with his latest Kate Beckinsale vehicle, Underworld: Evolution.

On the forefront, this is an excellent movie. Its polished special effects and action sequences make it a diamond among the whole vampire vs. werewolf genre, of which there are close to five movies altogether. It’s sleeker and faster than the original, handling a lighter load of plot exposition and filling in all its holes with plenty of nudity and gore. Don’t expect great performances from anybody because there isn’t the material for it, but nobody is obtrusively horrible either.

That said, however, one cannot ignore the rampant racism inherent in a movie that glorifies vampirism while demonizing werewolfdom. It is explained in the first film that vampires no longer need human blood because of their lavish stock of donated blood. Werewolves, on the other hand, are barbaric flesh eaters who delight in tearing their victims to shreds and scrounging through their meaty innards.

Lon Chaney Jr. would be appalled by this shameless bit of propaganda. No mention is ever made of thousands of human patients waiting on life saving transfusions while vampires are secretly using their blood packets as Capri Sun juice pouches. Nor is there any commentary on the amount of money being tied up in extravagant weaponry filled with silver nitrate and ultraviolet chemicals while health insurance rates skyrocket.

Other than the film’s obvious bias towards certain nonexistent creatures, the film does a great job of putting humans at a distance from the pervading action. In the first film Michael was the relatable character; a human who had just been bitten by a werewolf and was destined to become the first Lycan/vampire crossbreed. In Evolution there are no humans except for a few scattered soldiers who get beat up and thrown into trees. For the 99.9 percent of us who don’t profess to be vampires, it can be difficult to feel sorry for Selene and her boyfriend in their times of woe.

There may have been some commentary on the Israel/Palestinian war at some point given that the interracial battles are so similar, but I missed it in between all frantic fire fighting and the skin-tight leather. This movie gets three Bobcat paws because it is a good generic film. But like all decent generic sequels with subtitles like Apocalypse, Trinity, and Evolution, it will eventually disappear from our minds like a bat in the night. At least until the next sequel comes out.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 3 2006. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry