recently I re-watched the first two underworld movies, and not too long ago I had watched the last installment of the 4 movies total. Has anyone noticed that the vampires in the movies have progressively gotten stronger?
In the second movie, I know that Selene drank the blood of the original immortal Alexander Corvinus, which they didn’t explain adequately enough, in my opinion, gave her great power. I say they didn’t explain that well because of the unneeded flashback voice overs that explained why Michael Corvin, the vampire/lycan hybrid, came back to life after being impaled by a rather large and rusty pipe and being dead for quite some time. I think in that instance, the visuals would have been enough to tell us what was happening. however, with Selene’s power upgrade because of the blood, there really was not explaination, just a look she gave Marcus Corvinus, the original vampire turned vamp/lycan hybrid, when she blocked his more-ancient-than-her-powerful-punch than should have at least knocked her across the room.
now, looking at the time frame of what was going on, we find that Selene is pretty dang old herself! In the year 1202 A.D. Marcus’s brother William, the original werewolf, gets captured by the vampire clan. now, we don’t know how long the vampire clan has been around by this time because there is no frame of reference. But we are still talking about 1202 A.D.! Taking into account that it may have taken Selene’s human father a few years to build William’s prison, maybe even the better part of a decade, and Selene was just a small child during the construction of this prison, we can assume that when she first comes on the scene as a child the year is about 1212 A.D.. considering that the first film took place in about the year 2003, and the second took place directly afterwards, we can assume that Selene is an 804 year old vampire give or take a few years. this is also factoring in that she was maybe 21 years old as a human at the time of her conversion. this is nothing to sneer at! she is pretty old in her own right!
This gave me some problems with the first film, because she was pretty weak then. a small knife wound in her shoulder dropped her into unconsciousness, and she is over 800 years old? but the second film showed her as more of a butt kicking vampire that at least aspires to the power level of an Anne Rice vampire; whereas before, I saw her as just a little more powerful than a sparkling twilight twink-pire. And this only because she wore black shiny latex hot pants, and got burned in sunlight.
If I am honest with myself though, Anne Rice’s vampires were a little on the weak side in “interview with a vampire”. She rectified that in her next several books though, until she lost me when all her vampires had to be gay to show how free and open minded they were as humans in order to attract the attention of their vampire “parents” in the first place. needless to say, I only read 3 books in the series.
when vampires are reduced to completely scientific explanations of their origins, they always are weaker than what we have come to know and love about the legend. If there is not a spiritual aspect to them, then their strength is usually likened to animal strength. This completely limits their power. I think in underworld, they attempt to give a scientific explanation for their origin, but leave the explanation of their immortality open, never really delving into why they live forever. In fact, there is so much they do not explain about the vampires that we are left wanting a new story line to fill in the gaps. Why do the ancients “leap frog” through time by sleeping in caskets locked in tombs deprived of blood? How can they jump from the floor and stick to the ceiling the way that Erika did when she found that Michael had been bitten by a werewolf in the first movie? why do they heal so fast? there are many things left to our imagination, or left to our previous knowledge of vampires that I would love to see explained in a spiritual aspect in another movie.
I would like to find that the whole “one bit by bat, one bit by wolf” legend was infact just that, a legend, and there was a far more interesting origin to both the vampire and werewolf bloodlines. I would also like to see more powerful manifestations than the ones we have seen already from these vampires.
unfortunately, I think that this story line has come to its end. there may be another movie, but they are moving to the future of the vampire race, and not delving into the past. All in all, underworld and underworld: evolution were both very good movies, and I give them my two thumbs up and a few stars too boot.
I gotta say I agree…