Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - Review

Six years ago Underworld brought an unimpressive vampire vs. werewolves story to theaters. Playing with far too frequently used archetypes and concepts, and featuring horridly filmed combat sequences, the result was underwhelming and disappointing. Now we get a prequel that shows us the back story that Underworld told the audience in its dramatic climax. Despite being material we’ve heard before, with no real twists to speak of, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is probably the best movie in the series, although that’s still not saying too much.

The third movie in the franchise backs up several centuries in the Underworld storyline, showing the origin of the Lycans, a breed of werewolf that starts with Lucian (Michael Sheen). The vampires breed the Lycans as protectors - slaves intended to protect the vampires during the harmful daylight hours. Through the events of the film, the werewolves rebel against their former masters, exactly as we’d been told before, and the war between the vampires and Lycans begins.

The key to Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is substitution - take the elements fans liked in the original movie and find a way to make them fit here. Instead of Kate Beckinsale, Rhona Mitra steps into the corset of the heroine, playing Sonja, who is the daughter to Viktor, the vampire leader (Bill Nighy). It also borrows the star-crossed lovers caught in a forbidden romance storyline from the previous movies, placing Sonja and Lucian, as the young couple, which is what leads to the beginning of the war as their secret passion is revealed.

Rise of the Lycans takes on a difficult task - tell a story we’ve already been told, without any possible threat really occurring for the main characters, since we know both of the mortal enemies, Lucian and Viktor, are around for the subsequent films. Despite that, the movie does a good job of telling its story, perhaps because it doesn’t try to throw any twists in or adjust the story from what fans know it to be. We were told the original story in the first Underworld, and the writers stay faithful to that 100%.

Somehow, the more primitive setting works better visually for this movie than the gothic take on the contemporary city did in the previous pictures. In particular, the ornate armor and garb of the vampires creates a really neat environment that feels a lot more true to the vampire culture the movies have established than the Matrix appearance the other movies have sported. The visuals aren’t perfect though, especially because that annoying inability to film combat sequences has been carried over from the other pictures. When the action starts, prepare to get dizzy and lose most of the context of what’s going on. The visual effects for the Lycans, which put me off from the first movie, look a little improved here as well, although that could be due to the fact that they mostly appear during the ill-filmed action sequences.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans isn't solid enough to fully convert anyone unimpressed with the previous chapters, but this is definitely the strongest movie in the series and sure to please existing fans of the series, especially because it stays true to the pre-established history of the franchise. I would even go so far as to say I wouldn’t mind seeing another Underworld picture set in this era. Maybe a departure from the previous movie’s storyline and characters is exactly what this franchise needed.

Skinwalkers - Review

When Underworld hit theaters there was a world of controversy; a “World of Darkness” controversy, one might say. Role playing game publisher White Wolf decided the vampires vs. werewolves storyline was a little too close to the games they had been creating for a decade, and started to file charges. They should have waited until this year. Skinwalkers is just as close to the “World of Darkness” gaming world, with a slightly better storyline and, more importantly, more actual werewolves in their werewolf movie.

As treated by this movie, Skinwalkers is just a fancy Indian name for werewolves. You know, those humans who wolf-out at the full moon, feast on human flesh, are susceptive to silver bullets, etc? That’s what Skinwalkers is about. There are some skinwalkers who see the werewolf aspect as a curse. Others see it as a blessing. They like to fight a lot, mostly using guns but also with their own hands, claws, and teeth. Some prophecy said that one day the curse would come to an end, and that end would involve a thirteen-year-old boy and a red moon. Those who want the curse to come to an end have protected the boy; those who want to stay a werewolf forever have spent years hunting for this prophesied child. The movie opens with the first day of the red moon, which, conveniently enough, is exactly when the protectors screw up and the evil werewolves figure out where the boy is, causing the kid and his protectors to go on the run in what can best be described as a Road Warrior werewolf mesh at times.

Going into Skinwalkers, I was prepared to be disappointed. The trailers indicated this was a kind of werewolf movie but it made it look like the most animal transformation we would see would be some crummy teeth and maybe some contact lenses, mostly portrayed by biker and gang types. Additionally, the movie was being referred to as the werewolf movie without wolves in some interviews. I’m glad to say these were all mistaken inferences. The movie does have werewolves, humanoid in appearance, created by Stan Winston Studios. While it isn’t exactly groundbreaking in appearance, it is consistent with the feel of the rest of the movie.

What feeling is that, you ask? Well, my first impression of the picture, filled with muted color tones and hairy motorcycling bad guys, was that of a ‘70s horror flick. The score, which has a tendency to be a bit overbearing, added to that effect, as does poorly looped dialog which is seldom mixed well and frequently doesn’t mesh with the movement of lips or visible emotional performance going on up on the screen. Basically it felt like a low budget ‘70s horror flick, which the skinwalker makeup remains consistent with.

If that style doesn’t bother you, Skinwalkers is probably one of the best werewolf movies we’ve had in a while, which isn’t saying much considering the lack of competition. It explains enough to get going and then bulldozes through the story, frequently having to stop and give some explanation for what already happened. Within 10 minutes the bad skinwalkers know where the kid is. Within 20 the kid is on the run, etc. Along the way we find out what makes the difference between that perception of blessing and curse. The result is a movie that kind of feels like White Wolf's Werewolf game, with fighting clans of werewolves continually attempting to gain the upper hand.

None of the performances stand out as being exceptional. The best you really can hope for in a movie like this is “decent,” which is where most of the actors lie. It’s great to finally see a halfway decent movie for Sarah Carter, whose previous roles this year include National Lampoon’s Pledge This! and DoA: Dead or Alive. Yes, she’s cute, but she sure can’t pick the winning roles.

Don’t expect anything extraordinary from Skinwalkers, which at it’s best is mediocre. Being average, however, can be fun and, in all honesty, the movie as a whole wound up better than I expected, leaving me somewhat entertained for its running time. It can’t compete with classic werewolf movies but, in a time of lackluster PG-13 thrillers, Skinwalkers manages some fair thrills.