Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

The third Underworld is more traditional "comfort fantasy" than the first two, which put a cool contemporary spin on a new mythology about vampires, werewolves, and the humans who love 'em. This time the story moves forward into the past, with a Dark Ages prequel that's all flashing swords and giant crossbows instead of high tech firearms and car chases.

Fans shouldn't mind the change of century, though, because three of the best characters from the first movie are featured, all played by the same actors who embodied them in 2003: Lucian the Lycan human-werewolf hybrid (Michael Sheen), his massive second-in-command Raze (Kevin Grevioux), and the contemptuously evil vampire Viktor (Bill Nighy). Steven Mackintosh, the duplicitous vampire historian Tanis in 2006's Underworld: Evolution, is also back. All of the characters are the next best thing to immortal, after all, so they were around for hundreds of years before the first two movies took place.

Unfortunately, the events in Rise of the Lycans predate the arrival of the leather-clad death dealer Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. Beckinsale only appears on-screen here in a very short clip from the first flick. But as those familiar with the Underworld canon know, Viktor adopted Selene because she reminded him of his daughter Sonja. Accordingly, this movie's lithe and lethal Sonja (Rhona Mitra) could pass for Beckinsale's tough as steel sister.

In classic forbidden romance fashion, Sonja is in love with Lucian, despite being a member of the vampire elite while he is one of the castle's werewolf-human slaves. Lucian rallies the "Underworld" underclass and escapes, knowing he must return for Sonja. This means gathering an army that includes the savage pure werewolves populating the surrounding forest, and those are some extremely uncivilized creatures.

Sheen and Nighy are great at playing their characters without a hint of condescension, classing up the monster-mash by taking things right to the top without ever going over it. Sheen manages to deliver lines like "Any man who fights with me shall have his freedom—and, if he wishes it, immortality!" without a trace of irony. And Nighy is genuinely chilling when he tells Sonja, "You have betrayed me…to be with an animal." There's no winking at the camera by anyone involved, and only two lines of dialog in the entire film could pass for comic relief.

First-time feature director Patrick Tatopoulos, creature designer for all three movies, doesn't bring as much Matrix-lite flash to the proceedings as Underworld and Underworld: Evolution director Len Wiseman did. But Tatopoulos' more old-school approach works fine within this old-world setting. Also, Wiseman and Danny McBride have been among the writers on all three movies, using characters created by Grevioux, which has been good for both continuity and consistency.

It's not necessary to have seen the previous Underworlds before taking in Rise of the Lycans, because it works fine on its own. Even better, this installment will be enjoyable even for those who have followed the series from the beginning and know what's going to happen, thanks to flashbacks within the other movies.

As werewolf/vampire movies go, this one doesn't bite…or suck!

—James Dawson
01.23.09

The Underworld series gets the prequel treatment with this third outing that fleshes out the story of the ancient war between the vampiric Death Dealers and their wolfman counterparts, the Lycans. F/X technician Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Independence Day) steps out of the effects lab and into the director's chair with this entry, which sees stars Bill Nighy returning as Viktor, the king of his vampire clan and father to Sonja (Rhona Mitra), a free-minded heir who tests her parent by heading outside of their castle's borders and doing battle with the ravenous werewolves of the surrounding area. Sonja also has a secret love affair with Lucian (Michael Sheen), the first of the Lycans, a race of lycanthropes who were bred by the vampires to be slaves and protectors to the bloodsucking clan. As the news of their love spreads to Viktor, ranks of the vampire elite help Lucian escape, leading to a revolution of the Lycans against their masters and setting up the mythology of the later latexed adventures featured in Len Wiseman's two previous films. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi