Underworld: Rise of the Lycans Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.24.2009

Can Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen's returns keep this vampire-werewolf franchise moving along?

Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos
Written by: Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain

Starring:
Michael Sheen - Lucian
Rhona Mitra - Sonja
Bill Nighy - Viktor
Steven Mackintosh - Andreas Tanis
Kevin Grevioux - Raze
Shane Brolly - Kraven
Craig Parker - Sabas
David Ashton - Coloman
Elizabeth Hawthorne - Orsova



Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated R for bloody violence and some sexuality.

The Underworld franchise has become quite the profitable little boon for Screen Gems. The movie studio, Sony Picture’s subsidiary that caters to a more sci-fi and horror crowd, as found success with an action-horror franchise before, namely the Resident Evil franchise, and had individual successes with movies such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Stomp the Yard. With Underworld however, the studio found its first franchise to turn a major profit considering the relatively low budget of the movies. The first film, released in September of 2003 and starring a PVC-clad Kate Beckinsale, grossed just over $95 million on only a $22 million budget; while initially beset by a plagiarism lawsuit from White Wolf Game Systems, the creative force behind the World of Darkness role-playing games, the film managed to draw a strong fan base both from casual fans of the genre and White Wolf’s usually-loyal followers. The second film, Underworld: Evolution, continued the story of the first. While it was critically mauled much like its predecessor it out-grossed that film on a somewhat higher budget, receiving the same approximate profit margin. Director Len Wiseman had stated during the promotion of the first film that he had always envisioned at least three movies, so it was no surprise when in July of 2006, six months after the release of Evolution, Screen Gems announced that a third Underworld film would be moving ahead. Eventually sub-titled Rise of the Lycans, it was announced that neither Beckinsale nor co-star Scott Speedman would be back for their roles as the movie would be a prequel. Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen, both of whom had garnered a lot of critical acclaim for other films since they starred in the first, were brought back on board and in place of Beckinsale as leading lady Selene, Rhona Mitra was cast as Sonja, the daughter of Nighy’s Viktor. And now, the prequel has finally hit theaters this weekend.

Rise of the Lycans takes place centuries before the events of Underworld and Evolution, during the Dark Ages. As told in flashbacks, Lucian (Sheen) is born special among his race, the werewolves known as Lycans. Whereas most Lycans are apparently mindless and bloodthirsty monsters, Lucian is special; he maintains his discipline and rational mind. He is raised as a slave by the vampiric elder Viktor (Nighy), and used to create a new line of Lycans like him that are similarly enslaved. Unfortunately for them both, Lucian’s ravenous brethren outside the vampires’ walled city attack the human nobles and villagers; it is the job of the Death-Dealers to hunt them down. Viktor’s daughter Sonja (Mitra) makes a habit of doing so as well, much to the Elder’s chagrin. What Viktor doesn’t know however would be much worse in his eyes; Sonja and Lucian are lovers. Additionally, Lucian dreams of a life of freedom, for him and all his kind. When Lucian performs a forbidden act to save Sonja’s life, he is punished cruelly, an act which drives him to seek his and the Lycan’s freedom with Sonja by his side, pitting vampire against Lycan and beginning a conflict that may never end.

Len Wiseman, the man who wrote and directed the first two Underworld movies, has taken a step back from Rise of the Lycans. He wrote the story outline, but gave script duties to his previous writing partner Danny McBride and the writing team of Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain (Outlander). McBride, Blackman and McCain draw quite directly from the strong mythology established in the first two films to frame their story. Many of the events that take place in Lycans we’ve been told about before in passing or in summary; all that is left to them is to fill in the details. In doing so, the trio crafts a story that has a few very uneven acts. The first act of the story that leads up to Lucian’s punishment is, frankly, a mess, as the story struggles to figure out what pace it’s going to settle into. A high-octane chase through the woods turns into a scene in which Lucian stops the beating of a slave like a lycanthropic Spartacus, which turns into a love scene. It seems like several very different scenes stitched together with only the darkness of the setting and the larger-than-life declarations of the characters. After that however the movie settles down quite a bit and launches into Lucian’s quest for freedom contrasted with Viktor’s growing lack of control, both over his daughter and his people. This gives us time to get to the meat of the story before the final act can unfold and things pick up in the action category quite well. Along the way the writers introduce us to several characters that we’ve seen before; besides Viktor, Lucian and Sonja (who was only seen in a brief flashback in the first film, played by Hungarian actress Jazmín Damak), we see Andreas Tanis from Evolution in a major supporting role, the hulking, deep-voiced Raze (Grevioux) before he was a Lycan, and even brief moments of the Death-Dealer and future traitor Kraven (Brolly). These reprised roles will be a treat for fans of the franchise, and though they may be a bit more lost on newcomers, Tanis and Raze in particular play large roles in the plot themselves and require no introduction to initiates of the series.

Unfortunately for those initiates, the convoluted history brushes over certain parts that might be confusing, including the common ancestors of the two races. All in all, most newcomers shouldn’t get lost too badly, but there may be questions that arise; ones that may be on purpose to draw them into watching the later films. The bigger problem, in an odd sort of way, is for long-time fans. Much of the story here was already detailed in the first two films, which means that they already know how the story ends. Is there enough to keep those fans interested for the length of the film? Yes and no. While there are a lot of details fleshed out, it doesn’t make the fact that we know the ultimate fates of some of these characters already which takes some of the bite out of the suspense. What we are left with keeps things moving and freshens up the story without ever betraying it, but one can’t avoid a feeling of rehash at several times in the film.

In casting this film, it was essential that the original actors come back to the roles. In doing so, that has brought Nighy and Sheen back, both who have gone on to greater things since; Sheen has established himself as a dramatic heavyweight with critically-acclaimed turns in 2006’s The Queen and last year’s Frost/Nixon, just now finding wider audiences in theaters. Meanwhile, Nighy has been working quite heavily, giving excellent performances in such diverse fare as Hot Fuzz, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and Valkyrie. Both men find their returns to the Underworld franchise surprisingly comfortable ones. Nighy’s performance in Evolution, in what amounted to little more than a cameo, seemed forced and overacted. Here he is much more at ease. He still plays it with the larger-than-life theatrical style as he gave in the first one, and that works perfectly fine. Viktor is at times more sympathetic, and others even crueler than he appeared in the first two and Nighy handles it all with grace and a powerful presence. Meanwhile, Sheen takes his role and makes the most of it, having a lot of fun and playing it for all it is worth. Where the first two films were Selene and Michael’s stories, this one is surely Lucian’s. While Sheen has to occasionally spout lines and give speeches that seem like second-rate versions of better pulpit-smashers we’ve seen before, he does it with a sense of knowing that playing things understated will just play off poorly. There is a fine difference between overacting well and overacting poorly; Sheen accomplishes the former quite well.

Unfortunately, not all the cast is as good as Nighy and Sheen. In the third lead role, Rhona Mitra seems a bit more lost then Beckinsale was as the lover of a Lycan. Mitra plays it off straight, with none of the sense of fun she carried so well in Doomsday last year. It as if Sonja the character was sat down in front of a movie screen and shown the first two movies, and thus she’s emotionally shell-shocked throughout by knowing what's going to happen. She does have a strong chemistry with Sheen however, and in the scenes with him she plays much better than she does with Nighy. Steven Mackintosh doesn’t seem to be having as much fun as he did with Tanis in Evolution; perhaps a life of drugs and women just loosens him up enough to be more fun to watch, but as Viktor’s adviser he seems more morose, though in being morose he does well enough. Kevin Grevioux, with his remarkably deep voice and imposing physical image, gives Raze some life, and even Shane Brolly is good in his brief scenes as Kraven.

Wiseman also passed of the director’s job, leaving the role of guiding the film in the hands of Patrick Tatopoulos. Tatopoulos was the creature and production designer on the first two films, as well as on The Ruins, Silent Hill and Resident Evil: Extinction, though this is his first time helming a movie. This fact is obvious as he struggles to find the tone of the movie at times outside of the crowd-pleasing action scenes. As for his strengths, that of creature design, Tatopoulos stays largely to what fans will recognize from the first two films; whether that is a good or bad thing is up to the individual viewer, though for those who were fine with how the Lycans looked in the first ones should have no problem with the second two. Tatopoulos does an excellent job in draping the film in atmosphere; the medieval setting is dark and dreary, almost to the film’s detriment at times as things can be difficult to follow. He does fight scenes well, and it is in these that the movie is most alive including a well-choreographic, chaotic and violent climax between the two opposing forces. Tatopoulos also wisely includes a familiar scene the at the end to bookend the film for fans and to get newcomers interested in what happens later.

The film also spares no expense on blood; those who have walked away from Twilight wondering what happened to the idea of badass vampires will be quite happy with how they’re portrayed here. There’s vicious hand-to-hand combat, brutal whippings, Lycan assaults that leave their enemies spattered and spitting up viscous red and Lycans being cut in half by sword swings. During one scene, an escaping group of Lycans is set upon by enormous crossbows, one of which impales a poor guy right through the head. These are not your Stephanie Meyer vampires and it shows. Along the way we have the unmistakable dark blue tint that has colored the previous two films and provides a nice visual continuity. Ultimately, it provides the level of fantasy-horror escapism that was achieved by Underworld and, in lesser amounts, Evolution, and that’s all anyone who enjoys the franchise could ask for.

The 411: Those who have seen Underworld and its sequel Underworld: Evolution know exactly what they're getting into with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans in more way then one. Going off a story by creator Len Wiseman, screenwriters Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain create a story that fleshes out the events we've learned about in the first two movies and give us some juicy details to savor. While the script has occasional problems and sometimes feels like a lesser version of previous "liberate my people" movies, the action-drenched scenes directed by Patrick Tatopoulos keep things moving along and Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen pick up the pieces when things start to fall apart. While hardly a perfect film, will provide just what fans of the franchise are looking for and does something few prequels manage to do--maintain the quality of the original

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]