Underworld: Evolution (R)
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Caution: spoilers

This is the first sequel to Underworld. It came out in 2006, but I didn't see it until 2023. Going into it, I wasn't sure how much I'd like it, but that probably mostly owes to my depression making it hard to enjoy anything. I ended up liking it a bit more than I expected to, but still not as much as I liked the first movie.

It starts out with some onscreen text about the origins of vampires and Lycans, followed by a scene set in 1202. A group of vampires led by Viktor, Markus (Tony Curran), and Amelia arrive at a village too late to stop all the villagers being turned into Lycans. The vampires manage to kill most of them, and capture the original Lycan, William. Viktor orders him to be imprisoned in a secret location, against the wishes of William's brother, Markus (who was the first vampire, but Viktor is a noble, so he's in charge).

In the present, the film picks up immediately after the end of the first movie, in which Michael had become a hybrid vampire/Lycan, and Selene learned that Viktor had been lying to her about something, so she ended up killing him. Because of that, Selene and Michael must hide from the rest of the vampires, though not much comes of that, because Markus awakens and kills Kraven. But then Markus starts going after Selene, to learn the location of William's prison. Meanwhile, there's a ship at sea which is under the command of Lorenz Macaro (Derek Jacobi), who turns out to actually be Alexander Corvinus, the father of Markus and William. He's apparently been trying to clean up messes made by vampires and Lycans throughout their war with each other, but he is unwilling to kill either of his sons. And, you know, a lot of other stuff happens. Markus frees William (who is unable to return to human form, like modern Lycans). Selene and Michael battle Markus and William. For now, I'll refrain from spoiling how those fights end. Or anything else about the plot.

Anyway, it was a reasonably cool movie, I guess. And I'm sure some people liked it more than the first one, while others (like me) enjoyed it less. But not enough less to dissuade me from watching more movies in the series, one of these days....