Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) Review

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) Review

 

The third film in the Underworld series was apparently always planned to be a prequel, but it doesn’t go back to the very beginning moments of the war between the vampires and lycans. At the start of Rise of the Lycans the war has already begun, but this movie is designed to elaborate on how the two species came to hate each other so much, and show more of the key events only glimpsed in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution.

Some actors from the first movie are back. There’s Bill Nighy as Viktor, as well as the lycan with the deep voice, and Michael Sheen as—hey wait, Michael Sheen is back? This is awkward. Back when the first Underworld was made, previous lead Kate Beckinsale was married to him and had a kid with him, but that film is where Kate Beckinsale also met director Len Wiseman…She divorced Michael and married Len instead! Lucky for Michael, Len Wiseman didn’t direct this movie, it was directed by creature and effects creator Patrick Tatopolous. Wondering why that last name sounds familiar? He did the re-design for Tri-Star’s Godzilla, and the writers thought it would be funny if they gave the main character the same last name and people kept mispronouncing it all the time. Well, that joke wasn’t funny, and Patrick Tatopolous was on many people’s shit list after his re-imagining of Big G flopped with fans and was mocked for years afterward. But, he did well with the effects for the first two Underworld movies, and got promoted to director this time. 

We see baby Lucien (Michael Sheen) born and then it jumps ahead to him being a young man and a slave to Viktor. He is having a secret love affair with Viktor’s daughter, Sonja. She is played by Rhona Mitra, who looks like bargain-bin Kate Beckinsale—not quite a discounted Kate Beckinsale, she’s a little better than that, but still an off-brand bargain version. The point is for Sonja to look like Selene, though, so they actually nailed it. We already know Viktor took Selene in because she reminded him of his daughter, and Sonja was killed. This is stuff we’ve already found out in the first two movies, but now we see it all in longer scenes, so I think it’s pretty clear already this movie is really only made for either the biggest fans of the first two movies or viewers who missed those ones.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans suffers from most of the same problems nearly all prequels suffer from. Viktor is a main character this time, which sounds like it would be great, but he is actually less interesting the more of him there is. Of course it doesn’t help that his dialogue is very dull and he doesn't do all that much. We see the full scene of Sonja being killed by Viktor via sunlight as Lucien watches, which was only shown in flashbacks before, and I guess it's cool, but would've been cooler if we had never seen it at all before this movie. There’s a final sword fight between Viktor and Lucien, and it feels tensionless because we know they both will be in the next one, but it is a cool fight I guess, and they try to make it surprising. Even for a viewer who hadn’t seen Underworld, I don’t think it would be that much tenser.

There are two kinds of lycans this time: ones that are werewolves 24/7 and ones that are humans some of the time. Lucien has a little spiky silver collar that prevents him from becoming a lycan. His werewolf form looks a little different from the others, but I like it. The practical effects are up to par with the previous movie, but it's too bad there’s so much more cgi this time (of course you know that's only going to get worse as the series progresses), and it’s not great. This is also the most blue-toned entry in the whole franchise. Still, it’s visually consistent overall with the previous two, and the sets and costume designs are quite good. They don’t do a lot with the different setting, and in fact it wasn’t even the first werewolf movie franchise to have a prequel set in a more primitive age: Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning did it first in 2004.

There’s plenty of action and gore, but it’s not that impactful. I think it’s partly because of the film’s nature as a prequel and because of the directing. There aren’t that many new ideas here, and one new dumb concept is introduced: lycans are shown to be chained up and vampires take people up to them so they get bitten and turned into lycan slaves, but how could they wrestle a person away so easily without them being ripped apart or killed? It doesn’t make sense and erases all tension of the lycans being a threat. With no human characters to care about and a clear outcome in sight from the moment the movie begins, I’m actually surprised I didn’t dislike this one more.

So here’s a question: do I recommend watching Rise of the Lycans first over the actual first movie? Chronologically, it makes sense to do so. However, I would ultimately say...no. It would only make the first movie even more boring and tedious to watch afterward, and I think it works better if you already have an idea of what the stakes are going into this one. Still, you definitely could do it if you think this one might appeal to you more than the first movie. For the next entry in the franchise it’s back to the present day, following up where Underworld: Evolution left off and bearing little to any connection with Rise of the Lycans, which only makes it feel even weirder and more pointless to have done a prequel between movies two and four.