Remember the flashback sequences in Underworld 1 & 2, which showed the origins
of the epic war between the vampires and werewolves in ancient times? Well,
Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans, the third in the Underworld series of films, has devoted its entire narrative to the origins of this war. Taking place in an unspecified kingdom--presumably in Europe--many hundreds of years ago, this prequel looks at the rise of Lucian (played once more by Michael Sheen) a faithful werewolf servant of the vampires, who are led by the mighty Viktor (Bill Nighy, who also returns to play one of the most intimidating vampire lords in recent cinematic history). But Lucian is bopping Viktor’s daughter, Sonja (Rhonda Mitra) who’s a chip off the old block of Selene, our favorite Death Dealer from the first two films.
Now we know why Viktor had molded Selene into a lean, mean killing machine in the first film: to make her so that she’s a virtual replacement of his beloved daughter, who was a kick-ass Xena reject. Prequels usually work very well as long as they reveal a hitherto unknown fact that changes our perception of the original story, without actually altering the story itself. Unfortunately, U:ROTL offers nothing new to what was basically a back-story of the first movie. But although it’s pretty predictable, story-wise, the movie works on its own as a halfway decent action flick. Think of it as being more like Lord Of The Rings, but with a lot of fangs and fur (come to think of it, LOTR had a lot of fangs and fur, didn’t it? Oh well…).
Production designer Patrick Tatopoulos makes his directing debut here, and he does a pretty good job handling the action and special effects scenes. I just wish it were a little more fleshed out, though. But, thanks to the slim, ninety two minute running time, the movie lacks the gravitas of even the first Underworld--which wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, but still knew how to handle exposition amidst the slam-bang action. Here in the third film, all we pretty much get is action. The DVD is tricked out nicely with plenty of special features, and fans of the Underworld series will most likely add this to their collection. Underworld: The Rise Of The Lycans isn’t a terrible movie by any means; it is what it is: the lesser part of a trilogy that may still please the loyal fans.
--SF
Main Review Page | Horror Page |Email Me | Buy This on DVD Right Here!
