Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Rated R for violence, nudity and sexuality

Starring Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra

This is a prequel to the 2003 hit Underworld, starring Kate Beckinsale, and it's sequel Underworld: Evolution. If you haven't seen either of those, you really don't have too much too worry about, as this one is mainly an elaboration of the short backstory we saw in the first film. I had only seen the first film, but not the sequel.

It starts out centuries ago and it's Viktor's turn to rule the vampire empire, as Marcus, one of 3 vampire elders, has just finished his reign and has been put into a deep sleep. The vampires and werewolves are sworn enemies and the vampires would often capture the wolves and have them put to death. Somehow, one of the wolves mated with a human and produced an offspring, thus was born the first Lycan, Lucian, being half wolf, half human. Viktor could not bring himself to kill the creature and instead had an idea that using Lucian's blood, they could change humans into these creatures and use them as slaves due to the brute strength and protectors during the daylight from the werewolves.

Flash forward several decades, Lucian is grown into an adult and highly respected among the vampire elders, despite being referred to as Viktor's pet. We learn that Lucian and Viktor's daughter Sonja have a secret romance and is imprisoned for removing his slave collar (which prevents him from turning into a werewolve) while saving her and others from the werewolves. Sick of being a slave, while imprisoned, Lucian rallies the rest of the Lycans, including newly changed Raze (from the other films), and with the help of Sonja and a councilman who wants Sonja's seat on the council, scheme a plan of escape. After the breakout, Viktor learns of his daughter's forbbiden romance with a Lycan and holds her captive, as she was supposed to meet up with Lucian, and uses her as bait to lure him back in. Thus beginning the Vampire/Lycan war and a tragic love story.

Those that have seen Underworld know how it ends, as we've already seen Lucian's flashback to the events in this film.

Honestly, I liked this one better than the original. The only thing that really bothered me was one inconsistancy with the flashback - in the original, when Lucian shows a fellow Lycan what really started the war, Sonja's hair is bleached blonde. In this one though, she clearly has dark hair the whole time.

After this film and last year's Doomsday, Rhona Mitra is starting to become one of my favorite action chicks.

If you like vampire vs. werewolve movies be sure to check this one out. It was a fun film to see and I loved the love story in it.