UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS

(2009)

directed by Patrick Tatopoulos

written by Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman, & Howard McCain

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

4.18.09

So that explains some of it.

A werewolf, Lucian (Michael Sheen), is born in human form. Viktor (Bill Nighy) sees the potential in having a Lycan race that he can tame and even use as daytime guards against the first generation of Lycans. Viktor’s daughter, Sonja (Rhona Mitra), falls in love with her werewolf slave Lucian. The two attempt to escape. Once captured, Viktor learns that Sonja is pregnant with a hybrid. Viktor orders his daughters execution by being burned to death from sunlight while Lucian is forced to watch. And for some reason, Lucian gets a bit peeved at this and decides it would be a good time for a revolt.

Typically, prequels and even sequels are horrible messes that are only engineered to bleed a few more dollars out of the movie going public. This one was pretty good. The entire Underworld series has a feel that the creators were trying to do something truly novel in Hollywood and create a story that someone would actually take great interest in. Michael Sheen also does a terrific job carrying most of the weight in this film. Unfortunately, he was paired up with Rhona Mitra, who is quite nice to look at but has trouble with that, what do you call it…acting. Hopefully they’ll stop while they’re ahead.

5 out of 5