Excellent, a Must See

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

In an attempt to shake the series, we no longer have Selene decimating vampires and lycans...she was too busy being a US marshal in Antarctica (translates to Beckinsale filming 'Whiteout'). Wiseman, McBride and new director Tatopoulos thought to bring back fan favourites Lucian and Viktor in an episodic chapter that still feels all too familiar. Detailing how the war against vampires and lycans started, it divulges in the forbidden love story of werewolf Lucian and vampire Sonja. I shan't spoil what happens, because the original film already did so. Quite literally a full on expositional flashback in the first 'Underworld' illustrated this tainted romance, did we honestly need to have a whole film about it? Personally, no. I can't quite remove the concept that this was simply just a filler in a franchise that is now declining. Despite the pointlessness of this chapter, it surprisingly does have emotion and is by far the best written story of all the entries. McBride was able to capture the secretive intimate relationship with a sense of impending doom, evoking sympathy towards the main characters. Michael Sheen gives an excellent performance as does Bill Nighy against a mediocrely monotonous supporting cast. Can't quite determine if Rhona Mitra was good...just seemed like she was mimicking Beckinsale's previous performances. The medieval production designs enhanced the dark Transylvanian environment and were well suited. The creature prosthetics remain authentic and continue the franchise's dependency on them. Unfortunately, some horrific transformation effects and green screen do detract from the quality of this prequel. The action scenes were messy, plagued with quick cuts and the constant flashing of lightning which makes them unbearably difficult to watch. An 87 minute runtime also seemed like 120 minutes, indicating that the pacing does drag particularly during the first two acts. This prequel has good intentions, for everything it does right it also horribly misfires on other elements.

This is a great movie but I think another prequel should be made, a sequel to Rise of the Lycans. Based on where the movie left off and how Viktor met Selene. The Underworld sequels after evolution were very disappointing. They didnt feel anything like the first two movies or the prequel. I do not know why movie companies ruin movies this way by not keeping the same theme and vibe. When people think vampire movies or want vampire films they want them to be less modern, more medieval, dark, gothic and gloomy. Bring back Michael Sheen as Lucious, he is the best actor with a fully developed character.People do not like new actors and characters. They like the original actors, characters, theme, story line, and complex characters.

Unique to Rise of the Lycans compared to the other two Underworld movies is the emotion and testament the writing, characters and atmosphere portrayed. Giving Kate Beckinsale a break and taking the prequel route was a very smart plan, leading to a movie that was better than expected. With Bill Nighly taking a central role it really strengthens the core characters of the movie around him. Rhona Mitra was impressive as well as Michael Sheen, who would be hard pressed for being a lead role in other movies. It is also nice to see on film the backstory that the viewers kept hearing about in the first two films. Although we all know what happens to everybody at the end, the film still managed to hold interest. In no way is Rise of the Lycans an original or memorable film but it is surprisingly entertaining and a better watch than Evolution.

For the most part this was a good movie great action, good plot and storyline. But the main problem with this movie (spoiler alert) the vampires in this movie were extremely underpowered . It was almost Luciana vs humans . the vampires showed no speed there was only one show of strength, but other than that they were humans. where as the lycans showed all of the typical abillities of werewolves speed, strength, blood lust the whole nine. but im just one person. like i said other than that it was a great action packed movie . it also was a great back story to the other movies.in the future i would recommend focusing more on the characteristics of the characters them selves .Trevaris