Sunday At Home

Persona 3 continues to dominate the PS3, although I finally also got around to watching Underworld: Evolution and boy am I glad that this thing only cost 1/5 of a postage stamp. On the one hand, it’s definitely a nice show case of just what high def is capable of. The images are obscenely crisp, with tons of detail visible everywhere, and a quick comparison of the images as replayed in the standard definition video extras–compared with their HD source in the movie proper–is pretty distinct difference. This is definitely the kind of movie that would probably do well as a “reference film” in that you show it off on your TV to people whenever you want to explain what high definition video can do for an image.

On the other hand, the movie itself is pretty bland. It is by no means a terrible movie, the production values are through the roof, the visual effects are passable and the performances never really go sour… and yet for all that, the movie failed to really engage me or pull me in. It had some really interesting ideas–as did the first film–which suffered from being too crowded in with other ideas. At times it almost felt like the film really should been two or even three separate movies, taking more time to fully develop the themes and characters. On the one hand, you had a continuation of the revelations made at the end of the first movie, and this idea in itself, of a hybrid vampire/werewolf, could have carried an entire film exploring the neat consequences of such an idea. On the other hand, there was also a heavy component of “lore,” exploring the origins of the vampires and the werewolves, and this, too, should have been explored in a movie of its own, rather than having the two try to collide head on, but instead missing, and settling for an uneasy jostling between each other from one minute to the next, which never really resolved either idea in a satisfactory manner.

Kate Beckinsale continues to do her slinky, Lara Croft-with-fangs gimmick and is definitely easy to watch, but aside from a few emotional moments that don’t really feel “earned” she doesn’t much to do in this movie other than look attractively dangerous–or dangerously attractive–and shoot guns. It’s probably just a personal prejudice on my part, but I think the film probably could have benefited from more character development and fewer set-piece action sequences.