Under-whelming
The ‘Underworld’ trilogy now serves as a fine example of why producers who make prequels for sequels should be bled dry.
The first ‘Underworld’ was good, the second one was alright, and the third should have been left in the dark and dull place they dreamt it up in.
With a film about war between vampires, werewolves and the awkward hybrid of the two (and the almost-hybrid of a hybrid and a vampire), much more could have been done in the way of special effects and gore. The third installment didn’t slack on the slow-motion weapon fights or the human-to-werewolf transformations, but it didn’t bring anything new to the table.
We’ve seen all these tricks before – and they were much cooler when Kate Beckinsale was strapped in tight leather and doing them.
On top of that, the film left entirely too many holes, ones that could have been easily avoided with different casting choices.
Casting Rhona Mitra (‘The Number 23’) as Sonja, the daughter of vampire-elder Viktor (Nighy) and lover of the Lycan, Lucian (Sheen), was a foul-up on several levels.
First, she’s not blond; a vivid memory projected in the first ‘Underworld’ showed the execution of Lucian’s blond lover, not a pasty brunette with fake breasts. The execution also showed her screaming and crying as the sunlight burnt her to a crisp, but in this one, she accepts her death sentence and ‘poofs’ in a flash.
Mitra also fails to impress as a kick-ass death dealer, or a broken hearted damsel. Perhaps the writing trapped her into a rock and a hard place in regards to being both kick-ass and vulnerable. Either way, it doomed her character into an awkward place that cheapened her already-stale acting.
Also, an unattractive and uncomfortable sex scene managed to do something that few films have ever been able to do: turn me off. Sure, Sheen was great in ‘Blood Diamond’ and even better in ‘Frost/Nixon,’ but who wants to see Tony Blair from ‘The Queen’ stretched out spread-eagle style?
The love story was solid, almost believable and maybe, possibly, slightly depressing. It just got weird, though, when Sonja confessed to her father that she was pregnant with a vampire/Lycan-hybrid spawn. Seeing as Lycans are human-werewolf hybrids, it got entirely too complicated.
The background did give a lot of insight to Lucian’s character, though, but not enough to warrant a 92-minute film. Surprisingly, the 92 minutes passed by rather slowly – a result of trying to cram way too much story into a short amount of time.
‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ came into theatres with a huge advantage, riding the wave that ‘Twilight’ created for vampire films. But whatever popularity ‘Twilight’ started with vampires, ‘Underworld 3’ killed it.
In the end, ‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ will be locked into the same category as ‘Jurassic Park 3’ and ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’: movies that should have been left alone after two.
Published on January 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm
