{"id":682,"date":"2006-01-28T21:29:12","date_gmt":"2006-01-29T02:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=682"},"modified":"2006-01-28T21:29:12","modified_gmt":"2006-01-29T02:29:12","slug":"on-underworld-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"On Underworld: Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hard to believe, but it&#8217;s been over two years since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=525\"><i>Underworld<\/i><\/a> bowed on the screen.  For those unfamilar, <i>Underworld<\/i> told the story of Selene, a Death Dealer (basically, a vampire that hunts down werewolves), who discovers a conspiracy that could break open the vampire\/werewolf conflict.  It wasn&#8217;t a great movie, but it wasn&#8217;t without its charms&#8211;for a movie in which the major characters were all vampires it sure didn&#8217;t <i>seem<\/i> like a vampire movie.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the sequel&#8217;s come out.  <i>Underworld: Evolution<\/i>.  And how is it?<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, it&#8217;s not particularly good.<\/p>\n<p>The story makes very little sense.  If you&#8217;ve not seen the first film, <i>Evolution<\/i> doesn&#8217;t offer a helping hand&#8211;you <i>need<\/i> to remember the events of the first film, because <i>Evolution<\/i> picks up about twenty minutes after <i>Underworld<\/i> ends.  But even knowing <i>Underworld<\/i> doesn&#8217;t help, because <i>Evolution<\/i> is plotted by what I call the &#8220;What the <i>fuck<\/i>?&#8221; method of plot generation&#8211;rather than try and explain the last five minutes on screen, the writer comes up with something jaw-droppingly atrocious to obscure how convoluted and inane the story is.  Things happen, but there&#8217;s no <i>reason<\/i>, no motive.  Things happen with no set-up, no explanation.  The audience will, no doubt, sit there and say, &#8220;What the <i>fuck<\/i>?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The film lacks compelling characters.  Tony Curran&#8217;s Marcus, though he possesses an interesting backstory, just isn&#8217;t that exciting as the film&#8217;s villain.  Scott Speedman, so useless in the first movie, is even less interesting here.  And as with the first film, <i>Evolution<\/i> seems to be entirely a showcase for Kate Beckinsale&#8217;s physical attributes.  Even Sir Derek Jacobi seems wasted here.<\/p>\n<p><i>Underworld: Evolution<\/i>.  Really, <i>really<\/i> bad.  Not recommended at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hard to believe, but it&#8217;s been over two years since Underworld bowed on the screen. For those unfamilar, Underworld told the story of Selene, a Death Dealer (basically, a vampire that hunts down werewolves), who discovers a conspiracy that could break open the vampire\/werewolf conflict. It wasn&#8217;t a great movie, but it wasn&#8217;t without its<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=682\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;On Underworld: Evolution&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[1044,865,434,1045],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","tag-kate-beckinsale","tag-underworld","tag-vampires","tag-werewolves","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}