The Reviewer Goes to Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Those incorrigible Vampires and Lycans (werewolves) are back for the 3rd installment in the Underworld series, Rise of the Lycans; out this week on DVD and Blu Ray. This time it's a prequel to see what started the war in the first place. Fans of the series will no doubt be pleased with the result, especially if you're an adolescent boy (man if I was 13 I would've rocked this film). This installment is kind of like Romeo and Juliet meets Spartacus. All you need to know of the story is this. In the Dark Ages, the Vampire Coven leader Viktor (Bill Nighy) finds the first human born werewolf hybrid Lycan child, who he called Lucian (Michael Sheen) and raised him as a slave to create more hybrids for labor purposes (I mean, a vampire can’t get his nails dirty building castles now can he) and to serve as protectors of the Vampires from the dreaded pure blood Lycans. Now, Viktor has a rebellious daughter, Sonja (Rhona Mitra) and the 2 fall in love and the star crossed lovers have a clandestine affair and after a piece of nasty business by Victor towards Lucian, she helps slave Lucian escape to dire consequences from dear old daddy. But not before Lucian inspires his fellow slaves to revolt. Meaning, the war is on.
The whole film is pretty anti-climactic because in the first Underworld, the whole origin of the war was explained to us. We are just witnessing what transpired. If you are new to the Underworld series. You could simply start by watching this film and then go back to Underworld. The choice is yours.

Aside from the overly predictability and clichés, the film has a plethora of battle scenes which still feature Matrix like choreography mixed with Lord of the Rings style combat. In a word, it’s unoriginal. The cgi effects of the werewolves are laughable in there simplicity. As for the acting. Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy reprise their roles from the first film as Lucian and Victor. Michael Sheen does a pretty good job again as Lucian. He has clearly gone onto bigger and better things but he took the role seriously and still brought clarity and emotion to the character, especially when it came to whom Sonja and Viktor were to him. Bill Nighy, on the other hand was more over the top than he was in the original and at times becomes silly when he would throw a fit. I also didn’t feel he had any connection to his fellow cast, especially the relationship with his daughter Sonja. Which leads me to Rhona Mitra. She is a strikingly beautiful woman (the Director of Photography must surely have been smitten, judging from all the pretty close ups of her). But, they pretty much tried to make her be a clone of Selene (Kate Beckinsale’s role in the first 2 films) and she did not do a good job. Try as she might, I didn’t believe her relationship with either her father or Lucian and therefore didn’t feel any connection to her at all..
Overall, Director Patrick Tatopoulos gives us a faithful prequel in the Underworld series and considering they made a profit more stories in the Underworld series are likely to follow. I give Underworld: Rise of the Lycans 2 out of 5 stars.