If you're a fan of the 1st flick, you know it leaves us with a few juicy cliffhangers. 1) What happens to Kraven? 2) What's the deal with this mysterious Marcus character waking up? and 3) Do vampires have sex, because I didn't really get a good look in the 1st movie?All of these are addressed in basically the first 10 minutes. From there it's just sort of a new story altogether. But as I implied in the title of this review, the eye candy alone justifies this film's existence."Underworld: Evolution" is a sleek & stylish extension of the 1st movie, literally picking up exactly where the 1st ends. It has the same dark, gothy vibe and awesome wardrobe choices, but don't expect all the clever twists & elements that we saw in the 1st. This is more straightforward action.The themes of emotional betrayal, unexpected role reversal and moral plot twists that made the 1st movie so challenging aren't really here, since all the main characters are already defined. So this film is more of a linear, good vs bad story in search of the McGuffin (a term Alfred Hitchcock coined meaning the "thingamabob" everyone's fighting over). I'll forewarn you to strap your suspension of disbelief on tight because things get a little wacky. (Quick side note to the story writers of this movie as well as "Jaws 2" and a few forgettable Arnold Schwarzenegger flicks: a 300 lb. person, or shark, can't jump up and yank a helicopter out of the sky, no matter how cool it looks.) There are a few questionable items on the story/timeline, some which will give you minor pause and others which will make you say, "Wait but didn't that person just DIE?" But if you can overlook these it can be a fun ride."Underworld: Evolution" takes the first movie and adds more action, more blood, more cool gadgets, a little more sex, and takes away a few brain cells. But honestly it's still a fun flick. And like I said, how can you go wrong with KB's badass goth attire & the male cast having their shirts off for half the flick. A couple people's heads blow up too, so.

Underworld Evolution had so, so much potential and it's really a downer that the film didn't provide the quality of story that the first Underworld possessed. There were way too many characters in the movie and the role of William as a major part and theme of the film without having a focal character is just really petty when it comes to the flow and understanding of the story. The best part of the film, sadly enough, was the sex scene, where Kate Beckinsale was incredible and really animalistic. From that point forward the story seemed to stretch in its believability and the film gradually added plot hole after plot hole until a point where the ridiculousness was off the charts. The vampire and werewolf action and gore was still well done similarly to the first but that is one of the few things Evolution had going for it. The movie is pretty avoidable, maybe just a onetime watch is all its worth.

Now that the special effects that were cutting-edge for this movie's time have become not-so-impressive as the industry advances, the story itself is not creative or interesting enough to make it worth your time to direct your attention to the screen for almost two hours…unless you REALLY LOVE vampire or werewolf movies. If that's the case, let your freak flag fly! It's okay; I'm like that with football movies. Besides, there are worse things to have on your TV in the background than leather-clad Beckinsale doing acrobatics, shooting weapons, and kicking ass.For more reviews and a kick-ass podcast, check out: www.livemancave.com

Kate Beckinsale is back for more vampire/werewolf shenanigans. Underworld: Evolution picks up right where the first film left off. If you haven't seen that first film do so. This sequel tries to give you a Cliff Notes recap of what happened in the first film. But honestly if you haven't seen the first one you may be a little lost here. And you'd want to see that first film anyway because quite frankly that one was better than this one.So where were we? Beckinsale's Selene, still of course shoehorned into that body-hugging catsuit, is a vampire whose job is to kill werewolves. But now she's on the run with Michael, who's a vampire-werewolf hybrid. And Selene is kind of falling in love with Michael. Does this make any sense? Again, hope you watched that first movie. Meanwhile, vampire elder Marcus has gotten some wolf blood and is now a really ticked-off hybrid, flying around like a very angry bat. Marcus is coming after Selene and Michael. He's after something. That something turns out to be a pendant. This is apparently the most important pendant in the history of the world. Why? Well, we'll get to that later. First we've got a bunch of action sequences to get through. Bat-man Marcus and wolf-man Michael square off in all their CGI glory. There's more wolves, more vampires, more blood, more death and destruction. This movie had a much bigger budget than the first one and it's easy to see where the money went. It's a visual effects bonanza. Everything is bigger this time around. But bigger is not necessarily better.Let's be honest, this whole story is rather silly. Vampires and werewolves slaughtering one another. But in that first movie the story, silly though it may have been, was engaging, compelling and even somewhat charming. The backstory was very well worked-out, it was a silly movie but it had some smarts to it. This time out charm and smarts are in much shorter supply. This is just a big action movie like so many other big action movies you have seen. This one just happens to involve vampires and werewolves. Beckinsale gives it a game effort again, building this franchise around her paid off very well. She kicks butt. This time she gets to show real emotion as well. And she certainly looks the part, who else would you rather see in that skin-tight catsuit? Scott Speedman is back as Michael. He has less actual acting to do than he did in the first movie. Now he just has to be big and strong and smash stuff. Which he does well enough I suppose. Tony Curran has his moments playing Marcus but all in all that character is bit of a problem. He's way over-the-top. Menacing to be sure but often cartoonishly so. This movie has a lot of action, and that action looks really good. The movie is shot beautifully, if a little darkly, and the visual effects are utterly convincing. But the action to story ratio is skewed way too far in the direction of action. It's a reasonably enjoyable watch for anyone who enjoyed the first movie. But there's little doubt you'll have enjoyed the first movie more.