''Underworld: Evolution'' is a 2006 American

action horror film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as ...

directed by

Len Wiseman Len Ryan Wiseman (born March 4, 1973) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his work on the ''Underworld (film series), Underworld'' series (2003–2016), ''Live Free or Die Hard'' (2007), and the Total ...

from a screenplay by

Danny McBride Daniel Richard McBride (born December 29, 1976) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. Known for his unique acting and writing style, the accolades he has received include nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and four Sat ...

, based on a story by Wiseman and McBride. It is the sequel to ''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

'' (2003) and the second installment in the ''Underworld'' film series. The film stars

Kate Beckinsale Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress. The only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe, she debuted in the series premiere of the 1975 daytime drama ''Couples.'' In 1993, she made her theatrical film deb ...

Scott Speedman Robert Scott Speedman (born September 1, 1975) is a Canadian actor and model. He is known for portraying Ben Covington in the coming-of-age drama television series '' Felicity'', Lycan–Vampire hybrid Michael Corvin in the gothic horror–act ...

Tony Curran Tony Curran is a Scottish actor who has appeared in the film '' Underworld: Evolution'' (2006), the television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010), the miniseries ''Roots'' (2016), and the Netflix historical drama film ''Outlaw King'' (2018). He appear ...

Shane Brolly Shane Brolly is a Northern Irish actor, writer, and director known for his role as Kraven in the ''Underworld'' franchise. Life and career Brolly was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and comes from a family of Northern Irish actors, altho ...

Steven Mackintosh Steven Mackintosh (born 30 April 1967) is an English actor and narrator. He is perhaps best known for his role as List of Underworld characters#Andreas Tanis, Andreas Tanis in the action horror films ''Underworld: Evolution'' (2006) and ''Unde ...

Derek Jacobi Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen as well as for his work at the Royal National Theatre, he has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, a BAFTA Award, two ...

, and

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Known for his work in numerous stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and ...

. The plot follows

Selene In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Selene (; , meaning "Moon")''A Greek–English Lexicon's.v. σελήνη is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene (), she is traditionally the daughter ...

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 The Cinerama Dome is a movie theater located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Designed to exhibit widescreen Cinerama films, it opened November 7, 1963. The original developer was William R. Forman, founder of Pacific Theatr ...

in Los Angeles, California on January 11, 2006, and was released in the United States on January 20, by

Sony Pictures Releasing Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operatio ...

. 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 A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...

'' Underworld: Rise of the Lycans'' in 2009 and later a

direct sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

'' Underworld: Awakening'' in 2012.

Plot

In 1202, an army led by the three vampire elders ( Markus, Viktor, and Amelia) arrives at a village full of

Werewolves In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after bei ...

. Viktor and Amelia capture their target, Markus's twin brother,

William Corvinus The following list of characters from the ''Underworld'' franchise. Vampires Their metamorphosis is not nearly as startling as their Lycan counterparts. When they metamorphose, their eyes turn a shade of electric blue or bright gold, while thei ...

, 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

takes Michael to a safe house so that she can confront the vampire

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

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, 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

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

. 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 following list of characters from the ''Underworld'' franchise. Vampires Their metamorphosis is not nearly as startling as their Lycan counterparts. When they metamorphose, their eyes turn a shade of electric blue or bright gold, while thei ...

, 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 Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

. 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, the forefather to both the vampire and Lycan races. 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

** Lily Mo Sheen as young Selene *

as Michael Corvin *

as Markus Corvinus *

as Alexander Corvinus / Lorenz Macaro *

as Andreas Tanis *

as Kraven *

as Viktor *

Zita Görög Zita Görög (; born 27 September 1979) is a Hungarian actress and model, often credited as Zita Gorog. Life and career Görög was born in Nagybátony, Hungary. She specialized in drama at the Bródy Imre Grammar School in Budapest.

as Amelia *

Brian Steele Brian Steele is an American actor who is best known for frequently playing monsters in films and television. In 2018, he appeared as The Robot in ''Lost in Space''. Steele stands at 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m). Career On television, Steele was t ...

as William Corvinus * Andrew Kavadas as Selene's Father * Kayla Levins as Selene's Sister * John Mann as Samuel

Soundtrack

;Track listing

Release

Box office

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.Underworld: Evolution (2006)

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray ...

. Retrieved 2010-11-13. As of March 12, 2006, the film had grossed a total of $62.3 million in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and $111.3 million worldwide.

Critical response

As of August 31, 2021, ''Underworld: Evolution'' has a 17% overall approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 104 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. 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." Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. A few scenes of the film were shown in a panel at

Comic-Con A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events h ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, 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 Patrick Tatopoulos (born September 25, 1957) is a Greek- French production designer and director who lives and works in the United States. His designs have appeared in numerous motion pictures, including '' Pitch Black''; ''Underworld''; ''I, Ro ...

. The preview was well-received as hundreds of fans waited hours to see a clip of the film, as well as

and the other stars. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' criticized the film's "steel-blue filter" and described it as "a monotonous barrage of computer-generated fur and fangs." Peter Hartlaub of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' 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.

Home media

The film was released on DVD on June 6, 2006, and on Blu-ray on June 20, 2006.

Accolades

Prequel and sequel

The next film in the series, the prequel '' Underworld: Rise of the Lycans'', depicted the background history that led to the

Vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

- 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.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 2006 films 2006 horror films 2006 action thriller films 2000s monster movies American supernatural horror films American action thriller films American action horror films American dark fantasy films American sequel films 2000s French-language films Hungarian-language films *2 Films shot in Vancouver Films shot in Budapest Girls with guns films American vampire films American werewolf films Fiction about familicide Lakeshore Entertainment films Screen Gems films Films directed by Len Wiseman Films scored by Marco Beltrami Films produced by Tom Rosenberg Films produced by Gary Lucchesi 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language science fiction horror films English-language action thriller films