Jason M. said:
I liked the first one. Gave it a B-. I walked out of this one. It lost any of the gritty feel that made the original what it was.
I wasn't going to comment when I saw this film over a week ago,
but I have to echo your assessment, and in detail.
SPOILER warning
The movie was a disaster.
The first one was a gem because of the parallel between the Selene/Michael
romance of the present and Sonia/Lucian in the past. But I am getting ahead
of myself.
This sequel literally picks up right where the first one left off, with a backstory
insert to prep the Markus angle.
My problem is that too little of what was good in the first movie survives
into the sequel. Lucian's dead, Viktor's dead, and as hobbling as it is losing
Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy, the director further proceeds to kill off the
remainder of the coven (offscreen!), and ignore the Lycans as any kind of
factor on their own. The 'Vampires vs. Lycans' premise is thus casually
discarded virtually before the movie starts.
Sure the black latex catsuit is still there, and thank God for that.
Kate's Selene is uber-hot and displays more emotional range. This unfortunately
kills much of the Death-Dealer 'kool' she had before, but perhaps was
intended to help amp up her tepid chemistry with Scott Speedman.
Scott Speedman is again merely-passable as Michael. In the first movie he at
least was the focus of the story, and it was through his disbelieving
eyes that we assimilated the Underworld mythos of Vampires vs. Lycans. In
this sequel he is just an ornament for Beckinsale to play off of.
Derek Jacobi is embarrasing as Alexander Corvinus. Throw a toga on him and
he's faxing in Senator Gracchus from Roidley Scott's 'Gladiator'.
Tony Curran as Markus has quite some presence, but you can't really connect
to his fraternal obsessions, especially when the object thereof is an
uncommunicative 7-foot coyote on crack. Markus doesn't arouse our pity
the way Michael Sheen's brilliant portrayal of Lucian did in the first film-- and
again, back in the first movie, all the fascination with Lucian neatly reinforced
the leads' own romance --which sorely needed reinforcing.
The rousing gun-centered action of the original has been displaced in
too large a share by wirework acrobatics, and Hollywood staples
(the downed helo, et cetera)
The opening flashback to Markus/Viktor/Amelia could have been shot with a
sepia tint for relief --just like all such flashbacks in the first movie were
distinguished from the underlit blue haze of the present. What we get instead
is the nighttime palette (and virtually the same props) from Peter Jackson's
'The Two Towers'.
The final insult is the epilogue narrative. After neutering the covens, and castrating the
Lycans, killing off Markus, William and their father; leaving Selene and Michael
as supreme immortals: we are supposed to buy into Selene's ominous 'darknesss ahead'
for her and Michael. From what and whom, girl? You've killed off everyone who could
possibly threaten you and your lover! Sheesh.
I'd give this movie a 3 out of 10, but the criminal waste of all the
golden potential from the first movie tempts me to give it a 1/2.
h.