Underworld Rise of the Lycans 2009 Film Prequel

Len Wiseman Produces and Patrick Tatopoulos Steps up to Direct

Sep 11, 2009

Vampires rule the night and werewolves infest nearby forests. A lycan is born who can take on human form and ultimately causes a rift which leads to the vampire-lycan war

Underworld Rise of the Lycans is set over six hundred years ago, before Selene became a vampire and a Death Dealer. It charts Lucian’s birth, life and the fateful love that caused the war between vampire and lycan to begin. The exact date is unknown, and the vampires feature prominently in the lives of the humans who leave nearby. They are protectors from the werewolves living in the surrounding woods.

Both Lucian (Michael Sheen) and Viktor (Bill Nighy) return once more. They are joined by Tanis (Steven Mackintosh) reprising the character from Underworld Evolution, and Raze (Kevin Grevioux) from Underworld. Everyone else are new additions to the franchise with the most notable being Rhona Mitra as Viktor’s daughter Sonja (only seen during the flashbacks in Underworld) chosen for the role because of her resemblance to Kate Beckinsale. (Viktor turned Selene because she reminded him of his daughter Sonja, so it makes sense that the two needed to look similar)

In the wake of William’s rampage (William was the first lycan and when he bit someone they turned into a werewolf and were incapable of retaking human form) the vampires’ homeland is infested with werewolves. Death Dealers hunt and slaughter them in the forests and the humans look to the vampires for protection. Viktor discovers a human baby next to a werewolf and realises that he is looking at a second generation lycan, one that is capable of taking on human form. He takes the child home and raises him. When Lucian bites a human they become a werewolf able to become human again and through him Viktor is able to create basic slave race for the vampires. Lucian as he becomes known, works as a blacksmith and wears a collar with silver spikes facing inwards that would kill him if he ever attempted to change whilst wearing it.

During one hunt Sonja is overwhelmed by werewolves and Lucian takes off his collar in order to fend off the attacking werewolves to protect her. He saves her life, and even though Viktor is grateful that she is alright he is angry that Lucian disobeyed his orders by removing the collar. As punishment he has Lucian lashed, and imprisoned. During his confinement Lucian rallies the other werewolf captives, and they prepare for their escape.

Curse of a Prequel

The trap that most prequels fall into is that a lot of them tell stories, about how or why someone or something came to be the way it is, which the audeince already knew. Rise of the Lycans falls into that trap. During the events of Underworld the audience sees Sonja being murdered and knows that she and Lucian were in love. The purpose of showing spercifically everything leading up to the outbreak of the war seems to be a little pointless.

The recognisable characters Lucian, Viktor, Tanis etcetera have been seen either in Underworld or Evolution and so the audience already knows who is going to survive. The battle between Lucian and Viktor in the final moments of the film seems to result in Viktor’s death but then he is ‘revealed’ to still be alive. The audience can be forgiven for crying "Well, obviously, he is still alive because he was one of the main characters in the first Underworld"

Perhaps if the films had been made with Rise of the Lycans at the beginning followed by the next two then it would have been better. As it is, whilst the overall film is alright, it doesn’t give any more insights into the characters than there was before. Viktor was portrayed as a ruthless warlord, but then the audience already knew that, and Lucian was shown as the slave that turned on his masters, but again, the audience already knew that.

The CGI werewolves don’t look as real in this film as they did in the previous two and some of the sequences in which people change from human to werewolf look artificial and computer generated. It is a mystery why that is because the film’s director Patrick Tatopoulos was the person behind the creature effects for the first two.

Rise of the Lycans is the weakest of the three but really only because it was the last to be made. Anyone new to the franchise would benefit from watching the films with Rise of the Lycans at the beginning rather than watching the other two first.

All in all, Rise of the Lycans adds the back story to the Underworld franchise; however, the exact details and circumstances didn’t really need to be shown. Anyone who has seen Underworld will know the gist of how the war began.

However, Michael Sheen’s lady fans might like to know that he spends a lot of the film running around without a shirt on.

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