Evolution Review

Running Time: 85 min.

Production Date: 11 / 15 / 2001

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Monica Sweetheart, Jassie, Asia Carrera, April, Dee, Dale DaBone, Lee Stone, Joey Ray, Cheyne Collins, Micky Ray, and Randy Redwood in sexual roles and Anthony Crane, Erin Sky, and Tiffany Enright in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: Michael Raven almost always amazes me in some way with his features. I’ve heard that he’s really happy with Evolution which really makes me expect a great feature.

Initial Reaction: It’s very artistic, and the sex is normally above average

Who Should Watch It : Anybody looking for “couples style sex” with a different feel

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for nastier sex

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very clear and well balanced. Michael Raven normally shoots on film, so there is a little grain, but for film it looks very clear. There are a few areas where shadows interfere a little, but the shadows do feel kind of natural in some of the places. There’s also a little pixelation that feels like it doesn’t quite belong.

Music: Raoul Duke does the music for this Michael Raven Experience. It’s normally very well balanced and has a techno feel to it. It fits the entire feature extremely well and changes to fit some of the different moods of the feature. It almost has the feel of a mainstream movie soundtrack in many places, and actually had a few areas that made me wish I could actually find a copy of the soundtrack.

Menus: The main menu is highly animated and very well thought out. It gives a great feel to the upcoming feature and gives a great feel to the DVD right from the start. The chapter menu is highly advanced and gives almost every scene its own chapter menu. In each scene’s menu you’re allowed to choose which action you want to see with a highly computerized and futuristic feel. The only complaint I have about this is that it doesn’t exactly take you to that point in the movie. It lets you see that part of the scene and then takes you back to the menu. This seems overly complicated and seems like it means that the movie is on the DVD twice (which seems to be the case due to the chapter numbers for the chapters and the movie being one huge chapter) which takes up a lot of needless space.

The Feature: About thirty years in the future, after a worldwide holocaust, the New World Order has taken over. All forms of reproduction, including any kind of sex, are regulated by the government and love and marriage are abolished. Monica Sweetheart and her lover Joey Ray are caught by the government, thanks to a “good neighbor”. She’s found guilty, and sent in for rehabilitation, aka brainwashing. As Monica deals with trying to fight Mother, who’s much more in control than Big Brother, the other workings of the future society are shown.

Monica Sweetheart, who has an amazing natural body, a cute face, and sandy brown hair, flashes back to one of the times she had making love to Joey Ray. He kissed her all over before lingering on her pussy, and she returns the favor by kissing his nipples and his stomach on the way down to suck his cock. Monica gives Joey some great hand and tongue work while giving Joey the former presidential treatment, as well as some great eye contact before crawling up to let her pussy work his cock like it’s a pogo stick. She rolls over so Joey can spoon her before moving on to letting him fuck her from behind. Joey finally ends it with an impressive pop on Monica’s ass and back. It’s a pretty hot scene, but Monica seemed to be somewhere else during much of the scene, which brings it down a bit.

Randy Redwood fucks Jassie thanks to a couple sex toys, some electrical cable, and the marvels of modern science and virtual reality as a reward for turning in Monica. With the VR devices connected to the appropriate ports, Jassie lays back in her chair and lets Randy slide his cock into her twat. They change around so Jassie can be on top before she lets him take her from behind. She finally drops down to suck him off to his climax and takes his guy goo on her face and in her mouth. It’s a pretty good scene that shows great art direction and builds some nice heat. The action is nicely captured as the camera go all around Jassie and Randy, and show them both in the VR simulation and as if their fucking was in the real world. Due to the cuts, it’s not the best scene for those looking for spank material, but artistically it’s very nicely done.

Monica Sweetheart returns for the next scene, this time with obedient “citizen” Mickey Ray. She sucks his cock before climbing on and impaling herself on his cock. She gets into fucking Mickey very well before turning around to let him fuck her from behind while pulling her hair. She even gets into it enough to take a very impressive facial from him, letting most of it hit her tongue before falling down onto her tits and then sucking it clean. It’s a very hot scene and much better than the opening scene.

Asia Carrera, here wearing a dress made of bottlecaps, finds her way into one of the center’s rooms and tests out some of the VR equipment on herself. As she works herself over, one of the cyborgs are awakened and approaches Asia. Not one to turn down any kind of futuristic sex toy, Asia teases him with a view of her pussy and then drops down to work on his hard drive. As usual, Asia’s oral skills are a thing of beauty, and definitely one of then 7 Wonders of the Porn World. She’s rewarded with a little more toy time as Joey fucks her with the toy and then lays back for him to fuck her with his cock. Asia lets Joey bend her over the table to fuck her from behind. They finish it off with a couple pop shots, one of which is very unexpected, and one taken by Asia, who ferociously goggles up his nut butter with an amazing smile. I admit that I’m a little biased since I’m a big Asia fan, but she is really amazing here. She’s completely into the scene and makes up for any lack of emotion the cyborg has in the scene. In my humble opinion, I think it was one of Asia’s best performances in quite a while, and I don’t think she’s been slacking in her other movies either. This one is just that impressive.

Cheyne Collins and Lee Stone take one for the team by pairing up with Dee and April, respectively. The girls start out sucking the cocks, with April giving an encore performance of her sword swallowing show from Beast with Lee Stone and Dee doing what she can to keep up with Cheyne’s cock. At the end of the hummer, a doctor comes in and gives each girl a container to collect each guy’s cum, which they jerk into the container.

Dale DaBone also shows up to watch the vacuum races, and wisely keeps April for himself after the others leave. He has her suck his cock and then lay back to get fucked. Laying back doesn’t mean that April’s just going to lay there, as she puts her leg up on Dale’s shoulder and gyrates away on his cock. She continues to do what she can to have Dale’s whopper her way as he fucks her from behind, and from the treatment she’s giving him Dale had to be thinking about everything from multiplication tables to nuns playing baseball. Dale finally gives April almost total control as she rides him cowgirl style, which she does with a frequent smile on her face. April finishes things by having Dale stucco her nicely natural tea cup titties. It’s a scorcher of a scene that finishes off the feature on a very high note and shows why I think April is one of the most underrated porn stars of today.

Evolution shows that art direction and sex can mix very well. The sex is normally very good, especially April and Asia Carrera’s scenes, but a couple of the scenes lack a little, especially Monica’s first scene. The overall sex scenes also suffer a little because many of them seem to follow the same pattern and same positions. All but one of the scenes start out in a missionary form, which makes the scenes seem a little too familiar and brings them down a little. The art direction, however, flows extremely well throughout the entire feature. The sets are lavish and reminiscent of some of the better made for cable science fiction movies or lower budget mainstream science fiction movies. It fits with the futuristic feel and enhances many of the scenes very well. Some of the editing also felt a little off, with some of the scenes feeling like they were half outtake, such as stars chuckling while having sex or pulling their gum out. Although not perfect, Michael Raven’s Evolution is nicely done and deserves to be checked out

Extras: The behind the scenes interviews lasts about six and a half minutes. Jassie, one of Sin City’s contract girls, starts things off, however there are also interviews with April, Joey Ray, Asia Carrera, and of course, Michael Raven. There are a few clips of the actual feature, but mostly it focuses on the actual behind the scenes. There’s quite a bit of attention paid to the make-up here, which is good since the makeup in the feature is extremely well done. It’s a nice behind the scenes featurette that adds a nice little bit to the overall DVD.

The photo gallery is said to contain seventy five pictures, which appears to be very reasonable. The photo gallery is automated and lasts almost six minutes with about four seconds per photo. The photos are a nice mix of snapshots and near-full screen photos, all of which look very nice. Bios are included for Jassie and Michael Raven, both of which are well done. Although the extras menu claims to contain seven trailers, I could only find three on the DVD. Trailers are included for Underworld, which happens to be one of my all time favorite features, Whoriental Sex Academy, and Ka$h. It appears that trailers were also to be included for Watchers, Adrenaline, and four others, but I couldn’t find them on the DVD. Of course, there’s also web site information and phone sex information. Thankfully, Sin City has made these so that you have a choice of whether to watch them or not.

Finally, there’s a visual commentary with director Michael Raven that lasts almost twenty minutes. He includes clips of the feature and talks about what he was looking for or trying to do in the scenes. He also talks about some of the small details about the scenes such as the props and explains what’s going on in many of the scenes. It adds a few things, but there’s quite a bit that’s kind of a repeat of the actual things covered in the feature.

Themes: Straight, toys, masturbation, group, inter-racial, and oral

Raincoat Factor: High

Overall: Currently, Evolution can be found online for between $20 and $24 with most stores offering it at the low end. If you’re a fan of Michael Raven, I’m sure you’ll be happy, and it’s also a good one for people who want to see what the big hubbub is about this bub. The sex is normally very good and is wrapped around a well done theme. The transfer is also very good, but does have a few minor problems. The extras are very well done, and although they have a few minor flaws, do a great job of enhancing this DVD.

Note to Sin City: When I first looked at this DVD, I fully expected this to be the first Sin City DVD to earn a 5 for extras. Unfortunately, some of the little details brought it down a little in the extras. When the menus say there’s seven trailers, make sure there’s seven trailers. Also, the chapter menu was a little clunky. Please allow the use to select any of the scenes rather than moving through the choices one by one. Also, please include the chapters in the actual movie. It’s really great to have a time stamp, but it’s also nice to include chapter stops. It seems like it would be a lot easier to combine the chapter stops with the time code rather than basically having two copies of the feature on the same DVD. It’s the little things like this that made me knock you down a half point, which I really hated to do with how great so much of this DVD looked. With a few minor fixes, it shouldn’t be too hard for you to get a lot of notice for your DVDs in addition to your features.

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