To start off, let me
say that I'm a very big fan of the original. I think it did everything
right; having a nice Gothic overtone, great characters, an original,
intriguing and in-depth plot, fun action and an overall script that
never once felt dull. Oh, and of course...it had Kate Beckinsale in
tight leather, hehehe. Now does this sequel contain all these qualities
that made the original so good? Personally, I'd have to say no, I don't
think it did. Was the movie necessarily bad? Also no. It was highly
entertaining but not that good of a movie overall.
STORYLINE: The
story in this film was no where near as good or developed as the
original. As it starts off with a war scene in the past, I found myself
really enjoying it. We find out a little about the Corvinus family and
the origins or Marcus, who was the very first vampire, and his brother,
who was the very first Lycan. But after we witness these scenes and
learn these few minor plot details, the story development pretty much
comes to a dead stop. Honestly, nothing really happens in this movie.
It's all just action and really nothing more.
CHARACTERS: The
lead characters were good. Selene and Michael didn't exactly have any
development but that's okay because they were developed enough in the
first film. But what was slightly developed was their romance, which the
first film seemed to be lacking. We really got to feel the connection
between them and how much they really cared for each other. And it was
great to see Michael show off his new hybrid abilities and kick some
booty along the way. He was a lot cooler in this film than in the
original. The new vampire leader, Marcus, was also pretty damn cool. He
had a very sinister appearance, especially with the devil-like wings,
and didn't seem to have any sympathy at all as he brutally disposed of
anyone who got in his way. In the original, we had Lucian, who was a
well developed bad-guy character and I actually found myself caring for
him. Marcus, on the other hand, didn't strike a cord with me at all. He
looked cool, sure, but besides that, he had absolutely nothing going for
him and I really didn't care what happened to him. All the other
characters in this film were also very undeveloped as well. We really
knew nothing of them and as a result, felt unsure whether we should like
them or hate them. So that's a major issue.
ACTION: The action,
most the time, was very enjoyable. And I stress MOST of the time, not
ALL of the time. There was some really fun action and fight sequences
and a nice amount of blood and gore thrown into the mix. So it
definitely does manage to entertain the action buffs. But then, at
times, the action began to feel annoying as it got extremely repetitive.
It was like they just kept replaying the same action scene over and
over and just tweaked it a little in order to pass it off as a different
scene. This was a problem because the whole movie seemed to base itself
on action, rather than story, and the action wasn't even all that good.
ATMOSPHERE:
Another good thing about this movie would have to be the scenery. Yeah,
I know that's not really important in the movie, but it really did help
with the overall experience. There were beautiful mountain landscapes,
snowy woods, old style castles in ruins and gorgeous red colored
twilight skies. So I think it actually helped a lot in setting the
atmosphere and gets points for great eye candy.
OVERALL: The
first film was an action-horror movie with a great original storyline.
This sequel, on the other hand, felt more like a series of left over
action scenes that were taken out of the first film. I think watching
the two films back to back will make a great overall experience. But as a
stand-alone, it doesn't quite work. It's fun for sure, but that's about
it. It's not even remotely close to being as good or better than the
original in any way.