As I may have mentioned before, we’re not big on horror movies, but we watched and enjoyed the first two UNDERWORLD movies, so it was a given we’d watch the third one, UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS. This is actually a prequel to the first two movies, explaining the beginnings of the centuries-long war between the vampires and the lycans, a race of werewolf/human hybrids who retain some of their human intelligence when they transform into wolves. As such, it’s set in some vaguely medieval time, so there are a lot of castles and swordplay and such. With its blend of gothic horror and adventure, it reminded me a little of the Warhammer novels, and with the romance, political intrigue, and soap-opera-like dramatics, it also struck me as the sort of story that Book Creations Inc. used to produce in any number of historical family sagas (some of which were written by yours truly).
Anyway, although it’s kind of predictable, I enjoyed RISE OF THE LYCANS quite a bit. In fact, it may be my favorite of the series so far. Rhona Mitra replaces Kate Beckinsale as the heroine (Beckinsale provides some narration and makes a cameo appearance). Mitra is as good-looking as Beckinsale and has a really hot accent (how’s that for incisive film criticism?), so the change is okay with me. There are swordfights galore, bloody battles between lycans and vampires, the hero has a big galoot sidekick (giving weight to my theory that most action movies are really Westerns, regardless of their trappings), and after the inspiring ending, there’s an epilogue setting up the next film in the series. Needless to say, we’ll watch it.
By the way, even though this is a prequel, it’ll make a lot more sense if you’ve seen the other two UNDERWORLD movies first.
Anyway, although it’s kind of predictable, I enjoyed RISE OF THE LYCANS quite a bit. In fact, it may be my favorite of the series so far. Rhona Mitra replaces Kate Beckinsale as the heroine (Beckinsale provides some narration and makes a cameo appearance). Mitra is as good-looking as Beckinsale and has a really hot accent (how’s that for incisive film criticism?), so the change is okay with me. There are swordfights galore, bloody battles between lycans and vampires, the hero has a big galoot sidekick (giving weight to my theory that most action movies are really Westerns, regardless of their trappings), and after the inspiring ending, there’s an epilogue setting up the next film in the series. Needless to say, we’ll watch it.
By the way, even though this is a prequel, it’ll make a lot more sense if you’ve seen the other two UNDERWORLD movies first.
5 comments:
I'm glad you liked it. The first two are in my DVD collection and I'm looking forward to LYCANS.
I'll probabably watch this. I've seen the two others, though as much for Kate Beckinsale as the stories, I must admit.
Beckinsale doesn't do much for me, but I liked Rhona Mitra last year in DOOMSDAY.
DOOMSDAY is on our Netflix list, so we'll be getting to it eventually.
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